Attachment in the Dual Working/Single Parent Family

Discuss the implications of Bowlby’s and Ainsworth’s attachment stages in relation to the reality of the dual working parent or single parent family.

In his pioneer work with attachment theory, Bowlby believed that attachment behaviour in infants, such as crying and searching, were adaptive responses to separation from with a primary attachment figure. The primary caregiver provided care, support and protection, which is essential for infants to survive. This is relation to the evolutionary theory, where infant who develop attachment would enjoy a higher rate of survival. Mary Ainsworth further extended the theory, and classified with several attachment styles, including secure, anxious-resistant, and avoidant (Fraley, 2004).

Attachment style is known to be linked with emotional, behavioural and psychological functioning throughout the lifespan. Thus, it is believed that security of attachment affects modulation of arousal and attention, impacts quality of environmental exploration, and may be an essential stimulus for development of certain brain regions (Lianne, 2001).

In modern days, family structure has commonly changed into dual working parent. In Singapore, dual working parent are getting working long hours or required to travel overseas frequently. As a result, parents are not considered as the primary caregiver to the children as they rarely spend time with their parents. Instead, the children are attached with other adults, including maids, grandparents, or rely on childcare providers. It is doubtful about the range of
societal options for successfully sharing the task of bringing up children. In such case, secured attachment may less likely to occur for the children and they are possibly develop anxious-resistant or avoidant attachment. Belsky and Braungart (1991, as cited in Bretherton, 1992) showed an increased risk of insecure attachment if day care begins in the first year and is extensive in duration.

There was an interesting study supported the importance of attachment bond. Wendie and Coleman (2001) examined whether children who likely reduced access to parental resources were inclined to develop stronger attachment bond with a dog, compared with children who have greater access. Single-parent families and 2-parent families were compared based on the 12 years old children’s level of attachment to their family dog. The result revealed that children in single-parent families had significantly higher levels of attachment to dogs than children in 2-parent families.

Lianne (2001) investigated the effects of attachment disruption on cognitive functioning and academic success in adolescents. The data used in the research included demographic variables that possibly linked with attachment disruptions (separation from primary caregiver for more than six months, parental divorce, single parent home, adoption, birth outside the United States, and multiple moves), a measure of cognitive ability and student grades. The result demonstrated that attachment disruptions were small but significant effect on cognitive ability and grades.

From the studies above, we may conclude that attachment theories are playing crucial roles in the children development. Secure attachment is essential for children to develop positive mindset throughout their life.

References:

Fraley, R. C. (2004). A brief overview of adult attachment theory and research. Retrieved August 14, 2008 from http://www.psych.uiuc.edu/~rcfraley/attachment.htm

Bretherton, I. (1992). The origins of attachment theory: John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth. Developmental Psychology, 28, 759-775.

Lianne , L. C. (2001). The effects of attachment disruptions on cognitive ability and academic success in adolescents. Dissertation Abstracts International, 61, 10B.

Wendie1, B., & Coleman, G. J. (2001). Child-companion animal attachment bonds in single and two-parent families. Anthrozoös, 14, 216-223.