Do infant characteristics affect the quality of attachment? How is caregiving involved?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Because attachment is the result of a relationship that builds between two partners, infant characteristics should affect how easily it is established. Babies whose temperament is emotionally reactive and difficult are more likely to develop later insecure attachments. However, caregiving is also involved. In a study extending from birth to age 2, difficult infants more often had highly anxious mothers—a combination that, by the second year, often resulted in a "disharmonious relationship" characterized by both maternal insensitivity and attachment insecurity. Other research on disorganized/disoriented attachment has uncovered gene–environment interactions. In one investigation, mothers' experience of unresolved loss of a loved one or other trauma was associated with attachment disorganization only in infants with a chromosome-11 gene linked to deficient self-regulation. Babies with this genetic marker, who face special challenges in managing intense emotion, were more negatively affected by maternal adjustment problems. Overall, infant characteristics are only weakly related to attachment quality because many child attributes can lead to secure attachment as long as the caregivers behave sensitively. Interventions that teach parents to interact with difficult-to-care-for infants are highly successful in enhancing both sensitive care and attachment security. But when parents' capacity is strained—by their own personalities or by stressful living conditions—then infants with illnesses, disabilities, and difficult temperaments are at risk for attachment problems.