What is the attachment theory?

Attachment theory describes and explains the development of emotional ties between infants and
their caregivers, highlighting the implications of such bonds for individual development. Indeed,
research to date underscores the significance of attachment security in promoting positive
developmental outcomes. The core premise of attachment theory is that the relationship between
a parent and infant reflects a behavioral system that has adapted to promote survival and
competent functioning of the offspring. The behavioral system has two centrals’ parts:
novelty seeking and proximity seeking. Although the development of the system
occurs throughout the first year of life, it is most apparent when infants begin to crawl
(typically, around six to 10 months of age). When infants feel safe in their surroundings, they
explore their environment and play with novel objects. After all, the way an
infant grows into an independent and competent adult is through exploring, manipulating, and
interacting with people and objects. This is novelty seeking in action.
On the other hand, infants who just set off to explore the environment without any
fear would not last long—they might get injured or even killed. This is where the second
part of the system comes in: proximity seeking. When infants are upset, distressed, or
fearful, they will retreat to the protective arms of a parent. The parent is then able to
protect the child—one of the basic functions of parenting identified by Bradley as mentioned in
the first chapter. In this way, parents serve as a secure base for an exploring infant. According to
attachment theory, this base enables infants to feel comfortable exploring their environment,
because they know they can retreat to the safety of a parent when they need protection.
After regaining a sense of well-being, infants can then return to exploring their environment and
developing competence. Caregivers establish their role as a secure base over the
first year of life by showing warmth and love to the infants, being sensitive to their cues,
by satisfying their needs, and helping to regulate their emotions. In turn, infants learn
to trust that the caregiver will take care of their needs. That trust develops into a secure
attachment that encourages exploration of the environment, supports the development
of social and cognitive competence, establishes feelings of efficacy, and promotes the
development of autonomy.

Parenting Theories
Parenting has gained ample research attention from various scientific areas. Many theories
emphasize the vital role of parenting in child development. When studying parenting, researchers
use different strategies considering parenting practices, parenting dimensions, or parenting
styles. Parenting practices can be defined as directly observable, specific behaviors parents use to
socialize with their children.
Rather than focusing on specific parenting practices, other researchers identified overarching
parenting dimensions seen in relationship modeling. Most scientists agree on at least two broad
dimensions of parenting, labeled parental support and parental control. Parental support is the
affective nature of the parent-child relationship, indicated by showing involvement, acceptance,
emotional availability, warmth, and responsivity. The parental support dimension has been
related to positive development outcomes in children, such as the prevention of alcohol abuse
and deviance depression and delinquency and externalizing problem behavior.
The parental control behavioral dimension consists of parenting behavior that attempts to
control, manage or regulate child behavior, either through enforcing demands and rules,
disciplinary strategies, control of rewards and punishment, or through supervisory functions.
Appropriate behavioral control has been considered to affect child development positively. In
contrast, insufficient (e.g., poor parental monitoring) or excessive behavioral control (e.g.,
parental physical punishment) has been commonly associated with negative child developmental
outcomes, such as deviant behavior, misconduct, depression, and anxiousness. This parental
behavioral control refers to control over the child's behavior; parental psychological control
pertains to the parent's attempt to manipulate children's thoughts, emotions, and feelings. Due to
the manipulative and intrusive nature of psychological control, this type of control has almost
exclusively been associated with negative developmental outcomes in children and adolescents,
such as depression, antisocial behavior, and relational regression. The three parenting dimensions
(support, psychological control, and behavioral control) have been labeled as distinct concepts
that are interrelated.