Читать книгу Lifespan Development - Tara L. Kuther - Страница 328

The most important determinant of infant attachment is the caregiver’s ability to consistently and sensitively respond to the child’s signals (Ainsworth et al., 1978; Behrens, Parker, & Haltigan, 2011). Infants become securely attached to mothers who are sensitive and offer high-quality responses to their signals, who accept their role as caregiver, who are accessible and cooperative with infants, who are not distracted by their own thoughts and needs, and who feel a sense of efficacy (Gartstein & Iverson, 2014). Mothers of securely attached infants provide stimulation and warmth and consistently synchronize or match their interactions with their infants’ needs (Beebe et al., 2010). Secure mother–infant dyads show more positive interactions and fewer negative interactions compared with insecure dyads (Guo et al., 2015). The goodness of fit between the infant and parent’s temperament influences attachment, supporting the role of reciprocal interactions in attachment (Seifer et al., 2014).

The most important determinant of infant attachment is the caregiver’s ability to consistently and sensitively respond to the child’s signals

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Infants who are insecurely attached have mothers who tend to be more rigid, unresponsive, inconsistent, and demanding (Gartstein & Iverson, 2014). The insecure-avoidant attachment pattern is associated with parental unavailability or rejection. Insecure-resistant attachment is associated with inconsistent and unresponsive parenting. Parents may respond inconsistently, offering overstimulating and intrusive caregiving at times and unresponsive care that is not attentive to the infant’s signals at other times. Frightening parental behavior (at the extreme, child abuse) is thought to play a role in insecure disorganized attachment (Duschinsky, 2015). Disorganized attachment is more common among infants who have been abused or raised in particularly poor caregiving environments; however, disorganized attachment itself is not an indicator of abuse (Granqvist et al., 2017; Lamb & Lewis, 2015).

Parent–infant interactions and relationships are influenced by many contextual factors. For example, conflict among parents is associated with lower levels of attachment security (Tan, McIntosh, Kothe, Opie, & Olsson, 2018). Insecure attachment responses may therefore represent adaptive responses to poor caregiving environments (Weinfield, Sroufe, Egeland, & Carlson, 2008). For example, not relying on an unsupportive parent (such as by developing an insecure-avoidant attachment) may represent a good strategy for infants. Toddlers who show an avoidant attachment rend to rely on self-regulated coping rather than turning to others, perhaps an adaptive response to an emotionally absent parent (Zimmer-Gembeck et al., 2017).