ATTACHMENT THEORY: IMPLICATIONS FOR SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY (original) (raw)
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Educational Psychology Review, 2009
Attachment influences students' school success. This is true of students' attachment to their parents, as well as to their teachers. Secure attachment is associated with higher grades and standardized test scores compared to insecure attachment. Secure attachment is also associated with greater emotional regulation, social competence, and willingness to take on challenges, and with lower levels of ADHD and delinquency, each of which in turn is associated with higher achievement. These effects tend to be stronger for high-risk students. In this era of accountability, enhancing teacher-student relationships is not merely an add-on, but rather is fundamental to raising achievement. Understanding the role of attachment in the classroom will help educators be more effective, particularly with challenging students. Twelve suggestions to improve teacher-student relationships and school bonding are provided. Keywords Attachment. Achievement. School bonding. Teacher-student relationship Children's socioemotional well-being is critical to school success, and attachment is the foundation of socioemotional well-being. Because of this, educators-from preschool to high school-can be more effective if they understand how attachment influences their students. Attachment influences school success through two routes: indirectly through attachment to parents, and directly through attachment to teachers and schools. In this article, we briefly review basic attachment concepts for readers who are not familiar with attachment research. We then show how attachment to parents is linked to school success, and we summarize the limited research on attachment-like relationships with teachers. Finally, we discuss school bonding and conclude with recommendations for educators.
Multiple perspectives on attachment theory: Investigating educators’ knowledge and understanding
Australasian Journal of Early Childhood
This paper presents findings from a study investigating the multiple perspectives of attachment theory and practice through the voices of early childhood educators. Attachment theory has influenced research, policy and practice over the last six decades, offering a framework for understanding risk and protective factors in early childhood. Despite the increasing literature highlighting the importance of attachment relationships, attachment theory has been primarily considered from a medical health or psychological perspective and little is known about educators’ perspectives of attachment theory. In total, 488 Australian educators responded to the online survey, demonstrating a wide interest in the topic of attachment. One early childhood service was selected to participate in semi-structured interviews and observations. Findings indicate diverse perspectives in how educators support attachment relationship development, which varied according to their knowledge, understanding and ex...
Attachment in Children Gökçen İLHAN ILDIZ & Emine AHMETOĞLU INTRODUCTION Attachment is an emotional process necessary for survival of a child and is synonymous with the child's search for an emotional tie to a caregiver (Hazan & Shaver, 1994). Emphasizing on the importance of attachment, Bowlby defines is as "the meaningful, private and long-lasting emotional tie between two people". Bowlby (1973) suggests that inclination to and necessity of forming attachment is necessary for survival of newborns and the functional attachment system from the developmental perspective. The most apparent behavior of a child is "the effort to attach". The baby strives to cling to the mother (Güneş, 2014). The baby needs to be attached to the mother and avoids exclusion (Scharff, 1995). "The baby thinks that mother is his/her continuation, wants to see her anytime. In her absence, he/she gets worried, begins to cry and feels alone" (Güneş, 2014). "Need for attachment is apparent in both human beings and primates and can be defined as a bio-social process to protect the newborn baby from external threats, therefore the need for forming close relationships with other human beings is a fundamental aspect of human nature" (Bowlby, 1980). First, Freud (1960) suggested that an infant's emotional attachment to mother formed the basis of his/her future relationships. Contemporary researchers recognized the importance of parent-infant attachment but suggested that following development is influenced not only by early attachment experience but also ongoing quality of parentchild attachment (Berk, 2013). It is known that insecure attachment to the caregiver may cause emotional and behavioral problems in later stages of life (Perry, 2001). To summarize, attachment includes several key roles. Therefore; 1) attachment enables long-lasting emotional ties with special ones, 2) this relationship provides security, comfort and satisfaction, 3) loss or the risk of losing the special one causes extreme suffering" (Perry, 2001). Basic Functions of Attachment Bowlby (1980) suggests the existence of an attachment system designed to safeguard the intimacy between infant and caregiver under threatening circumstances. As infants need care and protection for a long time, they are born with a desire to be close to attachment figures and a series of behaviors to keep this intimacy. The system that strengthens attachment behavior works with the basic objective of providing security and protection. Therefore, when a threat to security is perceived the system works automatically and keeps active through whole life (Shaver&Mikulincer, 2002). Attachment behavior develops persistently and is sustained strongly through whole
Child Development, 1998
The contribution of attachment, maternal reported stress, and mother-child interaction to the prediction of teacher-reported behavior problems was examined for a French-Canadian sample of 121 school-age children. Attachment classifications were assigned on the basis of reunion behavior with mother when the children were between 5 and 7 years of age. Maternal reported stress and mother-child interaction patterns were assessed concurrent to the attachment measure, whereas behavior problems were evaluated both at ages 5 to 7 and 7 to 9 years. Security of attachment significantly predicted the likelihood of school-age behavior problems: Controlling/other children were most at risk for both externalizing and internalizing problems across both age periods. Younger ambivalent children presented clinical cut-off levels of externalizing problems, and older avoidant boys had'higher internalizing scores. Patterns of maternal-reported stress and mother-child interaction differed across attachment groups and contributed to prediction of school-age behavior problems, partially mediating the relation between attachment and adaptation. Results support the importance of attachment in explaining school-age adaptation and validity of attachment coding for children of this age.
Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 2014
Through an examination of measurement invariance, this study investigated whether attachment-related dimensions (i.e., secure base, safe have, and negative interactions as measured with the NRI-BSV) have the same psychological meaning for early adolescents in their relationships with parents and teachers. Data were gathered for a sample of 297 families with an adolescent in Grade 7 (M age = 11.40; 62% boys). The results indicated that perceived attachment-related dimensions have a similar meaning in parent-child and teacher-child relationships (weak metric invariance), but that no direct comparison of observed means should be made (lack of strong metric invariance). In addition, it seemed that teachers fulfill the function of secure base rather than safe haven in early adolescence.
Criticism of Attachment Theory
Attachment theory has a complex history, both positive and negative. This paper focuses on both. ̔ An attachment is a tie based on the need for safety, security and protection. This need is paramount in infancy and childhood, when the developing individual is immature and vulnerable. The infants instinctively attach to their carers̕ , .