Early Childhood Education Redefined by Pat Preedy & Kay Sanderson & Christopher Ball

Author:Pat Preedy & Kay Sanderson & Christopher Ball
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Routledge

Parental attachment and engagement

This study particularly draws upon the research of John Bowlby – frequently considered to be the father of attachment theory. Bowlby believed that the earliest bonds formed by children have a tremendous impact that continues throughout life, concluding that: ‘The infant and young child should experience a warm, intimate, and continuous relationship with his mother (or permanent mother substitute) in which both find satisfaction and enjoyment’ (Bowlby, 1951, p. 13).

Mary Ainsworth joined Bowlby’s research team in the 1950s. She was responsible for analysing James Robertson’s data from a film entitled ‘A Two-year-old Goes to Hospital’ (Bowlby and Robertson, 1952). The film focused on the separation of children from their parents when hospitalised. Observations of children traumatised by being separated from their parents often when they were profoundly sick have had a lasting impact on our understanding of attachment. In the 1970s Ainsworth conducted her ‘Strange Situation’ study. In the study, researchers observed children between the ages of 12 and 18 months as they responded to a situation in which they were briefly left alone and then reunited with their mothers. Ainsworth (1978) recorded the responses of the children using the following major styles of attachment:

secure (some distress when the caregiver leaves but is able to be comforted – secure that the caregiver will return);

ambivalent (become very distressed when their caregiver leaves and is not able to be comforted);

avoidant (no reaction when the caregiver leaves or arrives).

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