Parent-child Attachment - Free Essay for Students

Parental attachment is that closeness and relationship between the infant and the parents. In the case of Timothy, we see that the attachment between him and his parents is not clear cut. This is because at the age of 26 months he is referred to as a holy terror. He spends minimum time with his parents. We also see that he slowly acquires a violent behaviour of his parents; this is at times when Steve and Alice at times quarrel and spank each other. He also shies off from others because he wasn’t brought up in a social environment thus he prefers staying and playing alone even at school. Therefore, limited education and low social status many parents feel a sense of powerlessness and lack of influence in their relationship and so may extend this to their kids.

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Parent child attachment theory

This is a strong emotional and physiological attachment of an infant from at list one guardian. This is when the guardian takes care of the infant both physiological, mentally and emotional. A parent is supposed to highly be attached and monitor their children keenly. The attachment of timothy to his parents may be described as negligence. This is because his parents rarely have time for him even if they are at home. This is seen when his mother takes him to a caregiver where he spends 10 hours a day. Even if he is taken to a caregiver, the caregiver does not take good care and also doesn’t monitor him closely. He spends most time alone and unattended to. Chapter two (Berk & Meyers, 2016). Parents should take responsibility for ensuring that they spend time so that kids should feel the love of them and the good care of parents.

Attachment theory in early childhood

Timothy’s attachment to his parents has always been distant since the tender age of 26months. At this age, Timothy was not ready to take in a ‘no’ answer. This was because he wasn’t taught and showed what was bad and what was good at his tender age. He would act violently to everyone including adults. Chapter three (Berk &Meyers, 2016). Parents should at all-time be with their children at this tender age so as to impart good morals and attitude to them, and also on how to socialise with others both older and younger. Since the attachment is more of like absent this makes Timothy stay lonely and also feel neglected. This may make him the loose self-esteem and thus his social behaviour hampered, thus making him not to associate with others. He was six, he is enrolled in a first-grade public school he just plays alone and walks alone without associating with others. He used to come unprepared and at times with his homework undone. This contributed to his poor performance when he was eleven and so he was held back from being promoted to sixth grade (Berk & Meyers, 2016). Parents should be much concern with the well-being of their kids however much busy they are.

Factors that affect attachment security

Attachment of an infant to their parents is delicate in such a way that when tempered a little everything goes wrong. When a parent is hyperactive, they may make their children drift away from them because the parent is not friendly and does not entertain them. Children will at all point try to avoid their parents because of this action (Berk & Meyers, 2016). The relationship between the father and mother, this will either build the attachment or destroy it. When the relationship between the parents is good then attachment grows stronger but when the relationship between them is hostile, this will scare away the children. Just like Timothy’s parents, when at times they disagreed they used to spank each other in the presence of Timothy. The social status of the parents also is a factor that determines the attachment of their children to them. Moreover, when parents are rich they will have all the time to entertain their children thus making the attachment stronger. This is the opposite when parents are poor, they won’t have time to stay with their children thus reducing the attachment just like Timothy’s parents.

Attachment disorder treatment

Disordered attachment is the act or stage children reach whereby they feel like they are neglected and so behave in such a way that is abnormal ( Berk & Meyers, 2016).When a child is neglected it will have behaviours that will raise an alarm that they aren’t ok. This situation can be dealt with in two ways. One is to reach for a professional who will have to take the child through a series of concealing and try to make the kid feel loved and owned. Medication may work at this point since the doctor will recommend certain medication that will help with related symptoms of attachment disorder.

Recommendations

At the age of 26 months Timothy was hyperactive, thus he didn’t want to be held and also he also knew he was always right. His parents should keep a keen look on him. Provide care and love to him so that to improve his self-esteem. His parents should also stop spanking each other and also him as a form of discipline ( Berk & Meyers, 2016). At the age of six, his parents should be more concerned with all his doings since he is growing and thus need to be there to guide and instil good moral to him. At his adolescence stage, his parents should now be telling him on the real life situations. Help him with his homework and telling him the importance of education, this will make him aggressive academically. (Berk & Meyers, 2016)

References

Berk, L. & Meyers, A. (2016). Infants and children : prenatal through middle childhood. Boston: Pearson Education.