The parenting style and relational experiences a child is exposed to impact the attachment style that the child develops. In this post, we’ll be highlighting the four main attachment styles and the effect of those on children as they grow up.
Secure Attachment:
- Children who form a secure attachment are able to form and maintain effective social relationships
- Adults who have secure attachments growing up are better able to cope with life stressors and challenges
- Individuals are very good at regulating their own emotions and feelings
- Individuals with this style of attachment are able to approach others and form positive relationships and seek closeness without any passive aggressiveness
- Individuals can also tolerate frustrations more effectively
Insecure-avoidant attachment:
- A child or adult with this attachment style appears to have little interest in close relationships or contact
- An adult may appear to be dismissive of close relationships and disregard the importance of attachments in relationships
- Individuals may appear distant, become very self-reliant, and cynical of emotions and relationships
- Individuals become vary of becoming dependent on another person and thus avoid situations where they may need to become dependent (even to a small extent)
Insecure-ambivalent attachment:
- A child with this attachment style is irritable and unable to cope healthily with stress
- The child and adult can have attachment problems which display themselves in the form of poor control over impulses, fear of abandonment, and extreme emotions and behaviors (such as lashing out in rage etc.)
- An individual will likely be difficult to interact and be in a negative mood
- A child with an insecure-ambivalent attachment style may have the tendency to wet the bed due to lack of sufficient control over biological functions
- Individuals have the tendency to be overly dependent on other people and are often intense and overly focused on attachment needs in relationships
Disorganized/disoriented attachment:
- A child with this attachment style has a lot of defenses up because of the assumption of possible threats
- Adults will often display dysfunctional and chaotic behavior in relationships – this chaos and dysfunction will be a mirror image of their primary adult relationships
- Individuals may avoid relationships completely due to the fear that the terror and fear from past relationships may appear again in future relationships
- Individuals tend to have medical issues such as higher heart rates, alarmed reactions, and unresponsiveness
Source:
http://energeticsinstitute.com.au/early-life-attachment-affects-adult-relationships/
