Some effects of attachment disturbance on child behaviour

Internal working models of self and others and expectations of early relationships formed from early attachment experiences strongly influence the ways in which the child relates to others and the world. Infants whose early emotional needs have not been adequately met may come to view the world as comfortless and unpredictable and develop relationships that are marked by anxiety or detachment.

This paper presents some of the foundations of attachment theory and case examples are used to illustrate the ways in which children develop anxious or detached patterns of attachment. Attachment difficulties, together with environmental influences, are thought to be a genesis of later behavioural problems such as poor impulse control, aggression, prolonged emotional dependency and extreme difficulty in relating to other children.