Experiences of stress and caregiver support as learning context for attachment

As child attachment is clearly relevant for psychological well-being, it is important to increase our understanding of how attachment develops, which has long remained a black box. Recently, a new model of child attachment development was proposed that suggests that trait attachment is the result of a continuous learning process based on contextual activation of attachment states. Distress and caregiver support are proposed to serve as the learning context that influences state attachment. The current PDM project aims to test two important propositions of the model, namely: (1) that at least two types of contexts are relevant: (a) actual stress-support experiences with the caregiver, and (b) stimuli that reactivate memories of such experiences; and (2) that state attachment is less influenced by contextual cues for children with more secure trait attachment. This way, the project will significantly contribute to our theoretical understanding of attachment development and provide important clinical insights into the conditions required to create corrective attachment experiences.

Keywords:Attachment, Middle childhood, Learning context, Stress-support experiences, Assimilation

Disciplines:Orthopedagogical assessment and diagnostics