Attachment disorders
An attachment disorder is a condition that affects mood or behavior and makes it difficult for people to form and maintain relationships with others. These conditions usually begin in early childhood, but attachment issues may also persist into adulthood ( Morin, 2023).
Attachment Disorders are psychiatric illnesses that can develop in young children who have problems in emotional attachments to others. Parents, caregivers, or physicians may notice that a child has problems with emotional attachment as early as their first birthday. Often, a parent brings an infant or very young child to the doctor with one or more of the following concerns:
severe colic and/or feeding difficulties
failure to gain weight
detached and unresponsive behavior
difficulty being comforted
preoccupied and/or defiant behavior
inhibition or hesitancy in social interactions
being too close with strangers
Children who have attachment issues can develop two possible types of disorders: Reactive Attachment Disorder and Disinhibited Social Engagement Disorder.
Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD)
Children with RAD are less likely to interact with other people because of negative experiences with adults in their early years. They have difficulty calming down when stressed and do not look for comfort from their caregivers when they are upset. These children may seem to have little to no emotions when interacting with others. They may appear unhappy, irritable, sad, or scared while having normal activities with their caretaker. The diagnosis of RAD is made if symptoms become chronic.
Disinhibited Social Engagement Disorder (DSED)
Children with DSED do not appear fearful when meeting someone for the first time. They may be overly friendly, walk up to strangers to talk or even hug them. Younger children may allow strangers to pick them up, feed them, or give them toys to play with. When these children are put in a strange situation, they do not check with their parents or caregivers, and will often go with someone they do not know (American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. January 2017).
The concept of attachment styles grew from attachment theory and the research that emerged throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Today, psychologists typically recognize four main attachment styles: secure, ambivalent, avoidant, and disorganized (Cherry, 2023).
Secure Attachment Characteristics
Children who are securely attached generally become visibly upset when their caregivers leave and are happy when their parents return. When frightened, these children will seek comfort from the parent or caregiver.
Securely attached children readily accept contact initiated by a parent, and they greet the parent's return with positive behavior. While these children can be comforted to some extent by other people in the absence of a parent or caregiver, they clearly prefer parents to strangers.
Ambivalent Attachment Characteristics
Children who are ambivalently attached tend to be extremely suspicious of strangers. These children display considerable distress when separated from a parent or caregiver but do not seem reassured or comforted by the parent's return.
In some cases, the child might passively reject the parent by refusing comfort or may openly display direct aggression toward the parent.
Avoidant Attachment Characteristics
Children with avoidant attachment styles tend to avoid parents and caregivers. This avoidance often becomes especially pronounced after a period of absence.
These children might not reject attention from a parent, but neither do they seek out comfort or contact. Children with an avoidant attachment show no preference between a parent and a complete stranger.
Disorganized Attachment Characteristics
Children with a disorganized-insecure attachment style show a lack of clear attachment behavior. Their actions and responses to caregivers are often a mix of behaviors, including avoidance or resistance.
These children are described as displaying dazed behavior, sometimes seeming either confused or apprehensive in the presence of a caregiver.
Researchers suggest that inconsistent behavior on the part of parents might be a contributing factor in this attachment style. Parents who act as figures of both fear and reassurance to a child contribute to a disorganized attachment style (Cherry, 2023).
Attachment Disorders. (2017, January). American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Retrieved from: https://shorturl.at/kWeBz.
Morin, A. (2023, May). Signs and causes of attachment issues. Verywell Mind. Retrieved from: https://shorturl.at/u09Zz.
Cherry, K. (2023, December). 4 types of attachment styles. Verywell Mind. Retrieved from: https://shorturl.at/av8KT.