Three signs that a person has insecure attachment include the inability to engage in intimacy, struggling to form healthy relationships with others, and unpredictable or inconsistent behavior with loved ones.
Babies with an insecure-ambivalent/resistant attachment are clingy with their mother and don't explore or play in her presence. They are distressed when the mother leaves, and when she returns, they vacillate between clinging and angry resistance.
Examples of Insecure Attachment Behavior in Children
Actively avoiding parents/caregivers. Frequent bouts of inconsolable crying. Being overly clingy with parents/caregivers. Masking emotions.
Insecure attachment may take the form of avoidant, distant behavior or anxious clinging behavior. When children have insecure attachments with their parents, any number of negative consequences can follow, such as depression, anxiety, a lowered ability to cope with stress, and poor relationships with others.
A child or teen with low self-esteem may:
Cheat or lie when they think they're going to lose a game or do poorly. Show signs of regression, acting babylike or very silly. These types of behavior invite teasing and name-calling from other kids, worsening the problem.
Ainsworth (1970) identified three main attachment styles, secure (type B), insecure avoidant (type A), and insecure ambivalent/resistant (type C). She concluded that these attachment styles resulted from early interactions with the mother.
Known as disorganized attachment style in adulthood, the fearful avoidant attachment style is thought to be the most difficult. Sadly, this insecure attachment style is often seen in children that have experienced trauma or abuse.
The four S's of a secure attachment style refer to feeling safe, seen, soothed, and secure. Making children feel these ways may help them establish healthy bonds in their adulthood. Attachment style theory is a psychological framework originally developed by John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth.
There are four basic attachment styles displayed by children: Secure, avoidant, ambivalent, and disorganized.
Examples: The Types, Styles, and Stages (Secure, Avoidant, Ambivalent, and Disorganized)
Definitions. Insecure attachment : An individual relationship can be insecure when it contains elements of mistrust together with anxious or avoidant elements and lacks a secure base. It is considered a dysfunctional relationship.
Generally, a child with a secure attachment style has well-developed social skills and is not concerned by the presence of other children. They are happy to give, take, and share, and they show empathy to others when they are distressed.
A child with a disorganized attachment expresses odd or ambivalent behavior toward the parent, (i.e. first running up to them, then immediately pulling away, perhaps even running away from the parent, curling up in a ball or hitting the parent.)
We can define secure attachment as relationship bonds filled with safety, authenticity, reciprocity, and loving presence. Insecure attachment implies that relationship bonds are entangled with fear and survival states.
Adolescents with insecure attachment to parents are more likely to engage in risky behaviours, present behavioural problems, and experience difficulties with emotional regulation, such as impulsivity [26,27,28].
Based on these observations, Ainsworth concluded that there were three major styles of attachment: secure attachment, ambivalent-insecure attachment, and avoidant-insecure attachment.
Attachment theory is nuanced, like humans are. Although it is a spectrum of four styles, common parlance refers to only three: anxious, avoidant and secure.
For example, Schaffer and Emerson suggested that attachments develop in four stages: asocial stage or pre-attachment (first few weeks), indiscriminate attachment (approximately 6 weeks to 7 months), specific attachment or discriminate attachment (approximately 7-9 months) and multiple attachment (approximately 10 ...