Attachment Theory On Parent Child Relationship

1571 Words4 Pages

In this modern society, parental relationship has changed tremendously over time. The traditional parent-child relationship, where parents themselves spent more time creating strong bonds with their children through a loving and a caring way of providing their needs, is now losing its strength. As a result, parents find it a challenge to develop their children with positive personal attributes and maintain a healthy and close relationship with them. The kind of parent-child relationship developed in the family would entail the students’ level of academic performance. In the same sense, the level of students’ perception of their personal attributes has a relationship with how they will perform academically.

According to Barnard and Kelly …show more content…

Through dynamic interaction with the caregiver, mediated by behavioral systems and feedback, an attachment bond is established. The theory further states as cited by Betherack (2008) that attachment is “adaptive and innate” meaning through evolution; attachment is a behavioral system that has become crucial to survival and therefore the continuation of the species. He also stated that the drive to provide care giving is innate thus it is adaptive. This is because infants are born with “social releasers” which attract care giving. Infants form a number of attachments but must have a special attachment to one individual, otherwise known as a “primary attachment” or “monotropy”. This one special attachment is often to the infant’s mother due to the “sensitive responsiveness” the infant receives. The infant then sees this individual as its “primary attachment figure” which provides the main foundation for emotional development, self-esteem and later relationships with the world at large. The early parent-child attachment relationship necessitates proximity of the caregiver to serve as both a safe retreat during times of stress and a secure base from which the child can explore the environment. Security is felt, and exploration is facilitated, to the extent the caregiver is available and responsive to the child’s needs. On the basis of this proximal relationship, the child forms a cognitive schema that serves as a prototype for future relationships and exploration (Bowlby as cited by Parker,

Open Document