The effect of parent-child attachment

PSYCHOLOGY 0
“INSECURE ATTACHMENT”

PSYCHOLOGY 1
Question: “Research has shown that insecure attachment in infancy and childhood can
impact on adult attachment in later life”.
Ranson, K. E., & Urichuk, L. J. (2008). The effect of parent-child attachment relationships
on child biopsychosocial outcomes: a review. Early Child Development and
Care, 178(2), 129-152.
The development of secure attachment becomes a significant indicator for the positive
bond among infants and parents (Ranson & Urichuk, 2008). The study revealed that various
interactions of the parents result in secure attachment with their infant. The aim of conducting
the research is to understand the intuitive belief that attachment of parent-child can influence the
development of infants as well as child in different various domains and also across different
developmental stages. The scope of the study lies between understanding the influence of this
attachment on the outcomes of child psychology. The data collection was done through
reviewing existing articles that is by taking the opinions from the authors.
This research is useful because it provides information that secure attachment gives rise
to more positivity because of more “social-emotional competence”, “cognitive functioning”,
mental health” as well as “physical health”. However, infant with less attachment has more
negative outcomes in these areas (Ranson & Urichuk, 2008). Various limitations include that
study cannot control various other confounding variables which affect fluctuations in the various
stages of development such as conditions of living, level of stress etc. Therefore, it is concluded
that child-parent attachment influences in both a positive and negative manner. In my opinion,
this article is related with the topic because it provide information that this attachment is highly
helpful in different domain and which help in the development of the child.
Lee, A., & Hankin, B. L. (2009). Insecure attachment, dysfunctional attitudes, and low self-
esteem predicting prospective symptoms of depression and anxiety during
adolescence. Journal of clinical child & Adolescent Psychology, 38(2), 219-231.
Depression and anxiety are increasing among the adolescence, the estimation describes
that depression rate is about 70% in the 5 years of age. Therefore, these disorders influence
adolescence in higher terms (Lee & Hankin, 2009). The main objective of the study is to
investigate the insecure attachment that leads in increasing depression and anxiety by focusing

PSYCHOLOGY 2
on different pathways in the study. The scope of the study increase among the adolescence to
examine the level of depression, therefore data collection was done by selecting the youth in the
study the sample size was 350. The information gathering is done through questionnaires and by
following the 1-7 Likert scale, the usefulness of the research is that anxious as well as lack of
attachment change more mental health of adolescence, that is it increases depression and anxiety
level (Lee & Hankin, 2009).
The limitations of the study are that the study time duration is shorter which does not
provide complete information about the insecure attachment and cognitive factors. The study
concludes that insecure attachment increases the symptoms of depression among the
adolescence, however, the symptoms will be co-occurring. In my opinion, the study is related
with the topic because it describes that due to these domains depression and anxiety is increasing
among the adolescence which can also influence further in negative terms (Lee & Hankin, 2009).
Moutsiana, C., Fearon, P., Murray, L., Cooper, P., Goodyer, I., Johnstone, T., & Halligan,
S. (2014). Making an effort to feel positive: insecure attachment in infancy predicts
the neural underpinnings of emotion regulation in adulthood. Journal of Child
Psychology and Psychiatry, 55(9), 999-1008.
Animal research describes that regulation of emotions changes according to the exposure
of the environment by applying similar procedures in human development emotional factors play
a significant role in human adaptation (Moutsiana, et al., 2014). The study aims to investigate the
insecure attachment in childhood predicts the neural underpinnings of all the regulation related to
emotion in the adulthood period. The information gathering is done through adopting the
longitudinal study in which 22-year participants are selected, this is done by measuring the status
of child attachment on the objective assessment at 18 months.
The study is useful because it describes that more attachment in 18 months results in
providing a positive influence in the 20 years, further who all are securely attached results in
greater control and become active at the time of adulthood (Moutsiana, et al., 2014). The
consistency in the secure attachment leads in maintaining positive influence among infants and
adulthood. The limitation of the study is that it does not focus on the particular factor to
understand the influence which affects the secure and insecure attachment in the infant period.

PSYCHOLOGY 3
Further, it is concluded that disturbance with both relationship of child-mother affects the overall
status and emotion regulation at adulthood. I believe the article provides information to the
selected topic because it describes that the emotion regulation in adulthood highly depends on
the attachment and relation which is maintained between child-mother earlier.
Spruit, A., Goos, L., Weenink, N., Rodenburg, R., Niemeyer, H., Stams, G. J., & Colonnesi,
C. (2020). The Relation Between Attachment and Depression in Children and
Adolescents: A Multilevel Meta-Analysis. Clinical Child and Family Psychology
Review, 23(1), 54-69.
The study describes that insecure and secure attachment is related with the anxiety and
depression in the youth (Spruit, et al., 2020). This is highly investigated through various tests
and analyses that depression is the result of insecure attachment. The study aims to understand
the relationship between the attachment as well as anxiety, the study was conducted by using a
multilevel approach. The information gathering is done through selecting "643 effect size" in
which "123 independent samples", therefore it is focused on finding the relationship between
two variables.
The study is useful because it provides information that insecure attachment leads in
increasing depression and anxiety among the child and the youngsters. Therefore to solve the
problem of the depression that is when providing treatment attachment factors will need to be
considered (Spruit, et al., 2020). The study revealed that attachment influence the depression in
all the region, to all the genders, however, the depression is also impacted through the kind of
depression. The limitation of the study is that it does not provide information about the different
kinds of attachment through which the child and youngsters affected in both positive and
negative. It is concluded that there is a direct relationship between attachment and depression, in
the opinion this article helps in providing an answer to the research question because it gives the
information about the effects of insecure attachment (Spruit, et al., 2020).

PSYCHOLOGY 4
References
Lee, A., & Hankin, B. L. (2009). Insecure attachment, dysfunctional attitudes, and low self-
esteem predicting prospective symptoms of depression and anxiety during adolescence.
Journal of clinical child & Adolescent Psychology , 38 (2), 219-231.
Moutsiana, C., Fearon, P., Murray, L., Cooper, P., Goodyer, I., Johnstone, T., et al. (2014).
Making an effort to feel positive: insecure attachment in infancy predicts the neural
underpinnings of emotion regulation in adulthood. Journal of Child Psychology and
Psychiatry , 55 (9), 999-1008.
Ranson, K. E., & Urichuk, L. J. (2008). The effect of parent–child attachment relationships on
child biopsychosocial outcomes: a review. Early Child Development and Care , 178 (2),
129-152.
Spruit, A., Goos, L., Weenink, N., Rodenburg, R., Niemeyer, H., Stams, G. J., et al. (2020). The
Relation Between Attachment and Depression in Children and Adolescents: A Multilevel
Meta-Analysis. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review , 23 (1), 54-69.