Attachment Security in Day Care and at HomeAttachment

Attachment Security in Day Care and at Home

• Child care is associated with stronger cognitive, language and math skills when children are in school

–        Especially if the quality of child care is high

• The same research also indicates, however, that child care experience may be a risk factor for problematic social behavior with adults and peers
• What is the most important influence in determining whether infants and young children develop secure attachments to their mothers? ……and fathers
• It seems that the largest link is that if the child is in what can be considered a “poorer” quality of child care this generally will coincide with a families socioeconomic status

–        More stressors in regard to money and longer work hours and in turn longer stays in the daycare

• A typically “better” quality of daycare is seen as coinciding with a more affluent family who may not have as many financial stressors

Attachment in Daycare

• In this study they tested both the quality and the frequency of caregivers’ interactions with the children in the selected daycare facility

–      In several studies exploring the sensitivity hypothesis in a day care context it was not the quality but rather the frequency of positive caregiving that was related to more secure attachment relationships

• They found that involvement of the caregiver but not the sensitivity scale was related to more secure child–professional caregiver attachment relationships

–      When caregivers were more frequently positively involved with a child, the child in question was more securely attached to the caregiver

• In their meta-analysis it was concluded that in center day care, group-related sensitivity rather than providers’ individual child-focused sensitivity is a reliable predictor of attachment security

–      Group-related sensitivity refers to ‘the care providers’ child-oriented attitudes and the amounts of time they spent in positive proximate interactions with children while supervising the entire group

Implications for Development and Policy

• From an economic perspective, two issues must be addressed in thinking about child care policy

–        First, is there an economic rationale for the government to intervene?

–        Second, if so, what is the appropriate type of intervention?

• In recent years there has been a growing awareness of the substantial and long-lasting effects on children of their experiences in their first few years.

Long Term Effects of Issues of Attachment

Current attachment theory research looks at adult functioning in such areas as…..

• Leadership
• Trust
• Conflict Resolution
• How the individual views others in the world
• Romantic relationships
• Health

Attachment Style	Parental Style	Resulting Adult Characteristics
Secure	Aligned with the child; in tune with the child’s emotions	Able to create meaningful relationships
Avoidant	Unavailable or rejecting	Avoids closeness or emotional connection; distant; rigid; intolerant
Ambivalent	Inconsistent and sometimes intrusive parent communication	Anxious and insecure; controlling; blaming; erratic; unpredictable;; sometimes charming
Disorganized	Ignored or didn’t see child’s needs; parental behavior was frightening/traumatizing	Chaotic; insensitive; explosive; abusive; untrusting even while craving security
Reactive	Extremely unattached or malfunctioning	Cannot establish positive relationships; often misdiagnosed