“ The Strange Situation test: Is your child securely attached? ”
We hear a lot about “secure attachment relationships.” But what exactly do researchers mean by this term? Psychologist Mary Ainsworth first devised the Strange Situation procedure to assess the quality of an infant’s attachment to his or her mother. In this article I will:
explain the procedure, and discuss how babies respond to it,
address why some children are insecurely-attached,
examine how parenting and culture can affect attachment,
explore how early attachments might affect adult outcomes, and
review evidence that babies are primed to develop multiple attachments — not just a single, focal attachment to one parent.
We’ll also consider an important question: To what extent has research over-emphasized the role of the mother? Shouldn’t we also be talking about the roles of fathers, grandparents, older siblings, and other caregivers? As we’ll see, the Strange Situation — and attachment theory — is grounded on cultural assumptions that don’t apply everywhere.
What is a secure attachment?
More Info at: https://parentingscience.com/strange-situation/