SAGE Reference

The SAGE Encyclopedia of Children and

Childhood Studies
Attachment Theory

By:Amy Henry
Edited by: Daniel Thomas Cook
Book Title: The SAGE Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood Studies
Chapter Title: "Attachment Theory"
Pub. Date: 2020
Access Date: August 23, 2022
Publishing Company: SAGE Publications, Inc.
City: Thousand Oaks,
Print ISBN: 9781473942929
Online ISBN: 9781529714388
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781529714388.n37
Print page: 79
© 2020 SAGE Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
This PDF has been generated from SAGE Knowledge. Please note that the pagination of the online
version will vary from the pagination of the print book.
SAGE SAGE Reference
© 2020 by SAGE Publications, Ltd

Attachment theory has been used as a framework for investigating maternal–child relationships across a
wide variety of contexts. The theory, credited to psychoanalyst John Bowlby, suggests that mother–child
relationships create a relatively stable working model for all relationships that stays intact throughout a
person’s life and that infants are engaged in soliciting the attention of adults, playing a role in developing a
connection with a caregiver in order to ensure that the caregiver attends to them. Mary Ainsworth’s Strange
Situation experiment, which was designed to measure and categorize attachment, made the theory one that
has been easy to investigate among a wide variety of caregivers, including children of different ages and
caregivers of varying types (mothers and fathers, nonparental caregivers, childcare providers in institutional
settings like schools and day care centers, and caregivers in geographies beyond the United States). This
theory has been employed across a number of contexts to emphasize the importance of children’s need to
create a secure connection with caregivers in order to feel comfortable exploring unfamiliar situations.

History of Attachment Theory

Bowlby (1907–1990) became interested in maternal–child relationships through his training as a
psychoanalyst. Bowlby’s early work included investigating juvenile delinquents to understand patterns in their
relationship with their mothers and work (through his student James Robertson) on children who were patients
at a hospital on the effects of parental separation on their emotional well-being.

His specific work on attachment was inspired by ethologist Harry Harlow’s groundbreaking 1958 study in
which he discovered that a rhesus monkey was more likely to bond with an inanimate surrogate mother when
the monkey experienced contact comfort than when the maternal object satisfied physical hunger or thirst.
Harlow’s work inspired a new generation of researchers to reexamine the mother–child relationship, including
Bowlby.

But the contribution of one student, Ainsworth (1913–1999), was most significant, as she developed a way
to observe and classify attachment, which has allowed attachment theory to be validated in a consistent
way. Ainsworth’s experiment, the Strange Situation, emerged from her 1963 interviews with babies and their
mothers in Kampala, Uganda. It was in this research that she first saw infants actively seeking connection
with their mothers, validating what Bowlby had seen in his clinical work and suggesting a connection with
Harlow’s work.

In the Strange Situation, researchers observe an infant engaged in exploratory play, with their mother close
by, in a laboratory setting. While the child plays, a stranger enters the room. After a few minutes, the
mother leaves the room and then returns. After a few more minutes, both the stranger and the mother leave
the room, leaving the child by themselves. The mother then returns and the experiment concludes. While
researchers watch the mother and child during the entirety of the experiment, the separation and reunions
receive the most attention and scrutiny. Based on the child’s reactions, during these transitional moments, the
child–mother dyad is classified as follows:

• Secure attachment occurs when children feel they can rely on their caregivers to attend to their
emotional needs. It is considered to be the most advantageous attachment style.
• Anxious–ambivalent attachment occurs when the infant experiences separation anxiety when
separated from the caregiver and does not feel reassured when the caregiver returns to the infant.
• Anxious–avoidant attachment occurs when the infant avoids their caregiver when they return.

Expanding Attachment Theory

The field of research on attachment theory now includes work on attachment with other caregivers, including
fathers and childcare providers. Attachment theory’s validity has been explored in a range of contexts globally,
with an eye toward whether different parenting styles and cultures surrounding the parent–child relationship
have the same impact on a child’s working model of relationships. In addition, researchers have explored how
factors like a child’s disposition/personality might play a role in the way they engage (or do not engage) with
caregivers.
The SAGE Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood Studies
Page 2 of 3
SAGE SAGE Reference
© 2020 by SAGE Publications, Ltd

Over the 70 years since Bowlby and Ainsworth first began the work related to attachment theory, a number of
methods have been developed to optimize or complement the Strange Situation, including surveys and scales
that can be applied to children older than 18 months and interpretive methods that have helped researchers
focus on older toddlers, children, and teens.

Critiques of Attachment Theory

The assumption that a lab-based experiment like the Strange Situation can capture the complexity of
child-rearing and parental–child attachment has led many to critique the usefulness of attachment theory.
Researchers have questioned whether or not separations and reunions affect all children in the same way,
and whether or not child temperament might relate more to the development of a secure attachment than a
mother’s responsiveness toward her child. Many have suggested that because the Strange Situation was built
to assess the maternal–child relationship and that relationship may have different characteristics than other
caregiving relationships, it serves as a problematic starting point for attachment with fathers, for example.
Attachment theory has been questioned for its relevance in cultures where specific notions of maternal–child
attachment would most certainly affect the relevance of attachment theory in that culture. And many have
simply questioned whether the working model of relationships truly does hold throughout life. A number of
longitudinal studies are being conducted to assess and explore those results.

See also Autonomy; Bowlby, John; Child Attachment Interviews; Infancy; Parenting; Parenting Children;
Parenting Styles, History of

Amy Henry
http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781529714388.n37
10.4135/9781529714388.n37

Ainsworth, M. (1967). Infancy in Uganda: Infant care and the growth of love. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins
University Press.
Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: A psychological
study of the Strange Situation. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment and loss: Attachment. New York, NY: Basic Books.
Bowlby, J. (1973). Attachment and loss: Separation. New York, NY: Basic Books.
Bowlby, J. (1980). Attachment and loss: Loss, sadness and depression. New York, NY: Basic Books.

The SAGE Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood Studies

Page 3 of 3