Attachment is the emotional bond that forms between the infant and the caregiver , and it is how the helpless infant gets primary needs met. It then becomes an engine of subsequent social, emotional, and cognitive development. An infant's early social experience stimulates the growth of the brain and can influence the formation of stable relationships with others.
Attachment in Early Life
Attachment develops through everyday interactions as a caregiver attends to an infant's needs. The bond between infant and caregiver is usually so well established before the end of the first year of life that it is possible to test the nature and quality of the bond at that time.
As a result of their work with many child-caregiver pairs, researchers have described several basic patterns of attachment. In their studies, researchers briefly separate young children from their caregivers and observe their behavior before and after they are reunited with the caregivers.
A majority of children tend to show “secure” attachment behavior in studies, while others seem “insecure,” showing one of the other patterns.
Secure attachment in children has been theorized to result from sensitive, responsive caregiving and insecurity from its lack. While there is evidence that parenting can influence attachment security , it’s also clear that other factors—including genetics —play a formative role.
Attachment Styles in Adulthood
Attachment security and behaviors have been studied in adult relationships, and attachment-related patterns that differ between individuals are commonly called "attachment styles." There seems to be an association between a person’s attachment characteristics early in life and in adulthood, but the correlations are far from perfect.
Many adults feel secure in their relationships and comfortable depending on others (echoing “secure” attachment in children). Others tend to feel anxious about their connection with close others—or prefer to avoid getting close to them in the first place. Studies of persons with borderline personality disorder , characterized by a longing for intimacy and a hypersensitivity to rejection, have shown a high prevalence and severity of insecure attachment.
Attachment styles in adulthood have labels similar to those used to describe attachment patterns in children:
However, attachment styles may be better thought of as dimensional, where a person rates as relatively high, low, or somewhere in the middle in their levels of attachment-related anxiety and attachment-related avoidance. Also, a person may not exhibit the same kind of attachment pattern in every close relationship.
Explore More About Attachment
For a comprehensive understanding of attachment, read our complete guide: