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Attachment in Developmental Psychology

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Introduction Attachment is the bond that links humans to vital people in their lives. This bond begins to develop early on in life. According to Berk (2012), infants can become attached to regular people in their lives before the second half of their first year of life. These early attachments are normally to the primary caregivers of the infant. An infant with an attachment disorder is an infant who is unable to connect with his or her caregiver. This can also be called insecure attachment, meaning that the infant is indifferent or opposed to the affections of his or her caregiver. Reactive attachment disorder, or RAD, is a common attachment disorder that causes an infant to show either no attachment to anyone or sweeping attachment to everyone (Lubit, 2009). Multiple studies have been performed to reveal the how individual situations affect the development of attachment disorders. Depressed mothers, parental divorce, and maltreatment situations have all been investigated to establish their connections to attachments disorders in children. By identifying the factors related to attachment disorders, the development of attachment disorders can be reduced by taking actions against these factors. Maternal Depression A great deal of research has found a link between maternal depression and the appearance of attachment disorders in children. A study performed by Campbell, Brownell, Hungerford, Spieker, Mohan, & Blessing (2004) examined the association between maternal depressive symptoms and onset of insecure attachment. The study examined maternal depressive symptoms and children’s attachment security at 36 months. The participants were chosen from ten different locations across the United States. Data was collected when each child was one month old and again at six, fifteen, twenty-four, and thirty-six months. When the

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