Attachment and the

Secondary Caregiver
by Sandy Osborne

Separating from a primary caregiver or parent can cause anxiety and stress for the young
child. Although separation anxiety is experienced by all children in varying degrees, for
secondary caregivers in child care centers and family day care homes, it poses particular
problems,

It is important to understand child
attachment and the ways caregivers can
help children deal effectively with sep-
aration anxiety.
Attachment in Young
Children
Attachment is the affectional tie of
one person to another and refers to the
special closeness that develops be-
tween the infant and his or her primary
caregiver (Ainsworth & Bell, t970),
Those of us who work with children
Sandy Osborne is a doctoral candidate,
Department of Child and Family Studies,
College of Human Ecology, The University
of Tennessee, Knoxville. The author thanks
Kay Pasley and Jan Allen for their helpful
comments.
need to be aware of the two types of
attachment: primary and secondary.
Primary attachment is the initial one-to-
one relationship with a single human
caretaker, usually a mother or f a t h e r - -
the person who assumes the major re-
sponsibility for the child's care in an
ongoing, consistent manner. Many be-
lieve that this initial relationship pro-
vides the child with a model for all
subsequent relationships in life (Bow-
er, 1977). "Secondary attachments" are
formed with nonprimary caregivers
such as grandparents, day care per-
sonnel, teachers, friends in the neigh-
borhood, and babysitters. These indi-
viduals provide supplemental support
systems for children and their parents.
Both primary and secondary attach-
ment relationships provide a secure
base for the child to explore his or her
environment and experience a feeling
of mastery over the new surroundings
(Sroufe, 1978).
The quality of attachment relation-
ships vary. Differences in this quality
have been found to strongly influence
the child's behavior pattern (Sroufe,
1978). Ainsworth and Bell's (1974)
classic study identified three major pat-
terns of attachment which have been
used to describe the quality of the re-
lationship: (1) securely attached in-
fants, (2) anxiously attached, ambiva-
lent infants, and (3) anxiously attached,
avoidant infants.
Securely attached infants demon-
strate autonomous and exploratory be-
havior. These children use their
mothers (the primary caregivers) as the

20 DAY CARE AND EARLY EDUCATION

"bases" for their exploration and play.
They exhibit comfort when leaving
their mothers' sides to explore the new
environment, and yet use physical and
social contact such as clinging, fol-
lowing, smiling, watching, calling,
and listening upon reunion with their
mothers (Smart & Smart, 1978).
Anxiously attached, ambivalent in-
fants show a different pattern of be-
havior. Even when their mothers are
present, these infants do little exploring
and are wary of strangers. When the
mothers leave, the infants become vis-
ibly distraught and cannot be calmed by
the mothers when they return. In fact,
these children commonly push their
mothers away and hit, kick, or bat away
toys offered to them or simply continue
crying, fussing, or pouting (Sroufe,
1978).
The third pattern, anxiously at-
tached, avoidant infants, is often diffi-
cult to perceive. These children sepa-
rate readily from their mothers and do
not seek contact when the mothers
leave. When the mothers return, the
children greet them casually and may
show signs of avoidance. For example,
the children may start to approach their
mothers and then turn or back off
(Sroufe, 1978). The higher the level of
distress, perhaps at a second reunion,
the less likely they are to seek contact.
Sroufe (1978) believes that if these
measures of attachment are an indi-
cation of the emerging personality of a
child, then the differences in the quality
of attachment may have clear conse-
quences for autonomous functioning in
t h e next developmental period. Al-
though marked changes in develop-
ment and behavior may occur, there
may be continuity in the quality of a
child's adaptation. Hence, the child
who functions well at one age wilt be
likely to function well at the next, even
though different areas of behavior
might be involved.
Since separation anxiety is a de-
velopmental process experienced in
some degree by all children, secondary
caregivers can play a special role in
responding appropriately to the needs
of the child and primary caregiver. In
addition, caregivers must recall that the
child's potential for distress at the
time of separation is influenced by
many factors beyond attachment. Other
factors might include a child's illness,
SPRING 1986
hunger, or fatigue, or the recent experi-
ence and the degree of involvement
with the stranger.
What Can Caregivers Do?
As a result of my own work in child
care and discussions with many early
childhood education colleagues, I have
found a number of things that second-
ary caregivers can do to facilitate sep-
aration and perhaps lessen the intensity
of the response. The following is a list
of suggestions child care workers
should find helpful in dealing with the
common problem of separation anxiety
in young children.
1. R e m e m b e r that separation
anxiety is a common behavior in chil-
dren. While some children experience
anxiety more intensely than others, all
children exhibit some signs of anxiety.
These signs range from tantrums to
clinging and crying to ambivalence.
Communicating information to parents
to increase their awareness and under-
standing of the phenomenon of sep-
aration anxiety can be beneficial. Also,
informing them that other parents are
also experiencing this problem can be
helpful.
2. Establish a routine procedure
for entry and exit in the child care
environment. Such a routine would in-
clude using the same entrance daily and
structuring the classroom so that the
entrance is a"neutral area." This means
that the entrance would not be dis-
tracting and not include certain activi-
ties, such as puzzles, books, or circle
groups. The entrance needs to be a
neutral area where the child can suc-
cessfully transfer authority and control
from primary to secondary caregiver.
Routine tasks will aid in this transition
as well as giving everyone a job to do.
A simple five-step routine might be:
• Parents sign in child on the at-
tendance sheet.
° Child removes coat hanging it in a
cubby/locker.
• Child puts lunchbox on the serv-
ing cart or specified location. (Many
centers serve hot lunches so this may
not apply.)
• Parent puts nametag on child and
hugs child goodbye.
• Caregiver comes to entry area and
greets child and parent, remembering
to kneel down and meet the child at eye
level.
3. Give the child (and parent)
permission to bring a favorite toy or
blanket. Bringing favorite cuddly toys
and blankets to school is emotionally
healthy and related to the child's at-
tachment needs (Cole, 1985). These
items may serve as transitional objects
to assist the child in making the tran-
sition from home to center. (Check
licensing and health regulations; this is
prohibited in some states.) Giving the
child permission to bring blankets to
the center and to carry them around
may assure the child that he or she is in
an environment with caregivers who
empathize with the feeling of anxiety
and need for security. The caregiver
can sense when the child is settled and
ask that the blanket be put in a cubby/
locker, assuring the child that he or she
can get it out again when it's needed.
4. Post photographs of the child
and the family to help the child feel
more at home. The photograph may be
placed above the child's cubby/locker,
on a bulletin board, or in a special,
easily seen place. Since the photograph
is readily available to the child, the
child may look at it freely and feel an
additional sense of security and belong-
ing.
5. Parents and caregivers must be
sensitive to the child's signals. Every
child at times may be difficult to
handle. It's normal that on some days
separating from a parent is more diffi-
cult than at other times. If the child is
having one of these days, parents
should be encouraged to stay with the
child the extra 10 or 20 minutes neces-
sary to aid the separation process.
When parents must stay, have them
take off their coat and place their be-
longings out of reach. Having the par-
ents take off their coats may help the
child realize that the parent is really
going to stay for a while. Help the
parent to accept the consequences of
remaining in the center, of being in-
convenienced and perhaps late to work.
Parents may feel it worth the conse-
quences with an employer to help their
child settle into the center for the day.
Requiring new parents to arrive 15
minutes early for the first week or so
until the child becomes familiar with
21l
 the new environment aids both parents
and child in the new procedures and
environment (Whiren, 1982).
6. Caregivers can wear the same
smock, apron, vest, denim shirt, or
other "uniform" daily. Wearing the
same "uniform" helps the child identify
the caregiver. In a room full of other
children and colorful activities, the
child may feel overwhelmed and con-
fused. A caregiver in the same smock
can provide a consistent focal point for
the child. The younger the children the
more they may seek identification of
the caregiver through tactile senses in
addition to visual senses. Making an
apron or other uniform item out of
corduroy or another highly textured
fabric would foster this tactile identifi-
cation.
7. Parents and caregivers need to
be consistent in implementing sep-
aration procedures. As with other
areas of early childhood education,
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22
consistency by parents and caregivers
in utilizing the separation plan is impor-
tant. Much care and thought goes into
the designing of the entrance and exit
areas, as well as caregiver and parent
roles or procedures during separation.
All these plans assist the child and
primary caregiver toward better under-
standing of attachment and separation
and the secondary caregiver.
Remember that at all times primary
and secondary caregivers must cooper-
ate in making separation a positive ex-
perience for the child. When parents
are provided with an increased under-
standing of the phenomenon of attach-
ment, the separation process may im-
prove for both parent and child. Child
care directors and teachers need to be
aware of their role as secondary care-
givers and examine what specific be-
haviors and procedures may or may not
assist children with their attachment
needs.
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References
Ainsworth, M. D. S., & Bell, S. M. (1970).
Attachment, exploration, and separation: Illus-
trated by the behavior of one-year-olds in a
strange situation, Child Development, 41,
49-67.
Ainsworth, M. D. S., & Bell, S. M. (1974).
Mother-infant interaction and the development
of competence. In K. J. Connolly & J. Bruner
(Eds.), The growth of competence (pp.
97-118). New York: Academic Press.
Bower, T. G. R. (1977). A primer of infant
development. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman
& Company.
Cole, J. (1985, July). Please don't leave me.
Parents, pp. 54-57, 108-112.
Smart, M. S., & Smart, R. C. (1978). Preschool
children, development and relationships. New
York: Macmillan.
Stroufe, L. A. (1978). Attachment and the roots
of competence. Human Nature, 10, 50-57.
Whiten, A. (1982). Reducing stress for working
parents. Day Care and Early Education, 9(3),
25-36.
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