A longitudinal study was conducted to examine the relations between attachment of infants at 12 months and their capacity to engage in dialogs discussing various emotional themes with their mother at age 4.5 and 7.5 (Oppenheim, Koren-Karie, & Sagi-Schwartz, 2007). Two tests were given to a diverse sample group of mother-child dyads consisting of securely attached children, insecure-ambivalent children, and insecure-disorganized children. One of the two tests was Autobiographical Emotional Event Dialog (AEED) test in which each mother-child dyad talked about past events evoking four feelings: happiness, sadness, anger and fear. The other test given to the sample group was Separation-Reunion Narrative Co-Construction (SRNCC) test in which each dyad talked about the child's past emotional experience involving separation and reunion with the parents.
This study shows that infants with secure attachment will, in later years, be better able to express their emotions coherently and cope with negative emotions positively. Statistical analyses of the study found attachment in infancy to be a significant predictor of emotionally congruent dialogs (Oppenheim, Koren-Karie, & Sagi-Schwartz, 2007). Children securely attached at infancy will, consistently throughout childhood, display the capability to coherently construct stable, emotional dialogs and also conclude dialogs involving negative emotions in a positive way. The study also showed that securely attached children scored higher in vocabulary tests than insecurely attached children and delivered fluent and balanced conversation.
This study suggests that securely attached children who were consistently given prompt and appropriate responses to their needs from their caregiver in infancy will freely explore their emotional world, knowing and trusting their caregiver as their secure base. In contrast, insecurely attached children often have difficulty expressing their emotions and resolving their negative emotions.
No comments:
Post a Comment