ScienceDaily (Mar. 29, 2010) — New research from the University of Reading says that children, especially boys, who have insecure attachments to their mothers in the early years have more behaviour problems later in childhood.
The analysis by Dr Pasco Fearon, from the School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, looked at 69 studies involving almost 6,000 children aged 12 and younger.
The quality of the relationship between children and their parents is important to children’s development, but past research on the link between attachment and development has been inconsistent. The volume, range and diversity of earlier studies made it difficult to get a clear picture. However this new analysis has been able to pull together evidence from past research to answer a number of scientific questions around attachment.
According to attachment theory, children with secure attachments expect and receive support and comfort from their care givers. In contrast, children with insecure attachments have requests discouraged, rejected, or responded to inconsistently, which is thought to make them vulnerable to developing behavioural problems.
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