Influence of early attachment on later relationships

• The quality of a baby’s first attachment is crucial because this template will powerfully affect the nature of their future relationships.
• Internal working model (a baby’s first relationship with their primary attachment figure leads to a mental representation of this relationship) acts as a template for future childhood and adult relationships.
• A child with bad experiences of their first attachment will bring these bad experiences to bear on later relationships. (They may struggle to form relationships in the first place or behave inappropriately within relationships).
• Attachment type is associated with the quality of peer relationships in childhood.
• Securely attached babies tend to go on to form the best quality childhood friendships whereas insecurely attached babies later have friendship difficulties.
• Bullying behaviour can be predicted by attachment type.
• Myron-Wilson and Smith assessed attachment type and bullying involvement in children aged 7-11 from London.
• Myron-Wilson and Smith found that secure children were very unlikely to be involved in bullying, insecure-avoidant were most likely to be victims and insecure-resistant children were most likely to be bullies.
• Internal working models affect two major adult experiences- romantic relationships and parental relationships with your own children.
• Hazan and Shaver studied romantic relationships and attachment. They analysed 620 replies to a 'love quiz' printed in a newspaper. Those reporting secure attachments were the most likely to have good and long-lasting romantic experiences. The avoidant responders tended to reveal jealousy and fear of intimacy. These findings suggest patterns of attachment behaviour are reflected in romantic relationships.
• McCarthy studied 40 adult women who had their attachment type assessed when they were babies. Those assessed as securely attached babies had the best adult friendships and romantic relationships. Adults assessed as insecure-resistant babies had problems maintaining friendships and those assessed as insecure-avoidant struggled with intimacy in romantic relationships.
• Internal working models also affect the child's ability to parent their own children.
• People tend to base their parenting style on their internal working model so attachment type tends to be passed on through generations of a family.
• Bailey considered the attachments of 99 mothers to their babies and to their own mothers. The majority of women had the same attachment type both to their babies and their own mothers.
• Reviews of studies into the influence of early attachments have concluded that early attachment consistently predicts later attachment, emotional well-being and attachment to own children.
• However, not all evidence supports the existence of close links between early attachment and later development. For example, the Regensburg longitudinal study followed 43 individuals from the age of 1. At 16 their attachment was assessed again there was no evidence of continuity. This means it is not clear to what extent the quality of early attachment really predicts later development.
• One limitation of research into the influence of early attachment is that most studies are not longitudinal. Instead researchers usually ask adult participants questions about their relationship with their parents and identify attachment type from this. This relies on honesty and accurate perception of participants. This means measures of early attachment may be confounded with other factors making them meaningless.
• A further limitation of studies into influence of early attachment is the existence of confounding variables. For example, parenting style may influence both attachment quality and later development. Genetically-influenced personality may influence both factors. This means we can never be entirely sure that it is early attachment and not some other factor that is influencing later development.