Influence of early attachment on later relationships

• The quality of a child's first attachment is crucial because it provides a template that will affect the nature of their future relationships. This is due to the influence of the internal working model created by that first attachment.
• A child whose first experience is of a loving relationship with a reliable attachment figure assumes this is how all relationships are meant to be. They will then seek out functional relationships and behave functionally within them.
• A child with bad experiences of their first attachment will bring these experiences to bear on later relationships. This may mean they struggle to form relationships in the first place or they do not behave appropriately in them.
• Securely attached babies tend to go on to form the best quality friendships. Securely attached children are less likely to be involved in bullying whereas insecure-avoidant children are most likely to be victims and insecure-resistant are most likely to be bullies.
• People base their parenting style on their internal working model. Bailey et al. (2007) found the majority of mothers had the same attachment classification to their babies as they had to their own mothers.
• Hazan and Shaver (1987) found a link between attachment type and quality of adult romantic relationships.
• Hazan and Shaver (1987), The love quiz, procedure:


  The researchers analysed 620 replies to a 'love quiz' printed in an American local newspaper. The quiz assessed three different aspects of relationships:

  1. Current and most important relationship.
  2. General love experiences.
  3. Attachment type.
• Hazan and Shaver (1987), The love quiz, findings:

  The respondents' attachment type was reflected in their romantic relationships:

  • Secure respondents were the most likely to have good and longer-lasting romantic relationships.
  • Avoidant respondents tended to be jealous and fear intimacy.
• AO3 - Strong research support:

  There are many studies showing a link between infant attachment type and later development, including bullying, success in romantic relationships and parenting. A review by Fearon and Roisman (2017) concluded that infant attachment influenced development in many ways. Disorganised attachment was most predictive eg. of later mental disorder. This means that insecure attachment appears to convey a disadvantage for children's development.
• AO3 - Validity issues with retrospective studies:

  Most studies assess participants' attachment type in adulthood (not in infancy) using questionnaires or interviews. These rely on honest answers. A further problem is that these studies assess attachment in late childhood or adulthood and assume that it has remained the same since infancy. This means that the measures of attachment may not be valid.
• AO3 - Possible confounding variables:

  Some studies do make assessments of infant attachment and follow up children, assessing their later development. However, these studies may be affected by confounding variables. For example, parenting style and personality might affect both attachment and later development. This means that we can never be entirely sure that it is infant attachment and not some other factor that is influencing later development.
• AO3 - Self-report is conscious but internal working models are not:

  Internal working models are unconscious; we are not directly aware of their influence on us. We would not expect to get direct evidence about them by means of questionnaires because people can only self-report what they are aware of. When participants self-report on their relationships they are relying on conscious understanding of those relationships. At best self-report gives us indirect evidence about internal working models. This is a potential limitation of most research involving the concept of internal working models
• What are internal working models?

  The mental representations we all carry with us of our attachment to our primary caregiver. They are important in affecting our future relationships because they carry our perception of what relationships are like.