chapter summary:

The Caregiver–Child Attachment Relationship

• According to Bowlby’s theory, attachment is a biologically based process that is rooted in evolution and increases the helpless infant’s chance of survival. A secure attachment also provides children with a secure base for exploration. An outcome of early parent–caregiver interactions is an internal working model of relationships.
• The quality of children’s attachment to their primary caregiver has been assessed using Ainsworth’s Strange Situation. Children typically are categorized as securely attached, insecurely attached (insecure/resistant, insecure/avoidant), or disorganized/disoriented. Children are more likely to be securely attached if their caregivers are sensitive and responsive to their needs.
• There are similarities in children’s attachments across many cultures, although the percentages of children in different attachment categories sometimes vary across cultures or subcultures.
• Parents’ attachment status and their working models of relationships are related to the quality of their attachment to their infants. There appears to be some continuity in attachment from childhood to adulthood, unless hardships such as divorce, illness, child maltreatment, or maternal depression occur between childhood and adulthood.
• Intervention programs demonstrate that parents can be trained to be more sensitive, attentive, and stimulating in their parenting and that these changes are associated with increases in infants’ sociability, exploration, ability to soothe themselves, and security of attachment.
• Children’s security of attachment to their caregivers predicts quality of their future interpersonal relationships.

Conceptions of the Self

• Young children’s conceptions of themselves are very concrete—based on physical characteristics and overt behavior—and usually positive. With age, conceptions of self increasingly become based on internal qualities and the quality of relationships with others; they also become more realistic, integrated, abstract, and complex.
• According to Elkind, because of their focus on what others think of them, young adolescents think about an “imaginary audience” and develop “personal fables.”
• According to Erikson, adolescence is marked by the crisis of identity versus identity confusion. The individual’s attempt to construct an identity, as well as whether and when the individual experiences a particular identity status (psychosocial moratorium, identity foreclosure, identity diffusion, or identity achievement), is influenced by personal characteristics and familial and cultural factors.

Ethnic Identity

• In childhood, the development of an ethnic identity involves identifying oneself as a member of an ethnic group, developing an understanding of ethnic constancy, engaging in ethnic-role behaviors, acquiring knowledge about one’s ethnic group, and developing a sense of belonging to the ethnic group. Family and community influence these aspects of development.
• In adolescence, minority youth often start to explore the meaning of their ethnicity and its role in their identity. Many ethnic-minority youth initially tend to be diffused or foreclosed in regard to their identities; then they become increasingly interested in exploring their ethnicity (search/moratorium). Some come to embrace their ethnicity (ethnic-identity achievement); others gravitate toward the majority culture; still others become bicultural.

Sexual Identity or Orientation

• Sexual-minority (gay, lesbian, or bisexual) youth are similar to other youth in their development of identity and self, although they face special difficulties. Many have some awareness of their same-sex attractions by middle childhood. The process of self-labeling and disclosure among sexual-minority youth may involve several phases: first recognition, test and exploration, identity acceptance, and identity integration. However, not all sexual-minority individuals go through all these stages, or go through them in the same order, and some individuals have difficulty accepting their sexuality-minority identity and revealing it to others.

Self-Esteem

• Children’s self-esteem is affected by many factors, including genetic predispositions, the quality of parent–child and peer relationships, physical attractiveness, academic competence, and various social factors.
• Although minority children in the United States often are exposed to prejudice and poverty, supportive families and communities can buffer and even enhance their self-esteem.
• Concepts of how a person should think and behave differ across cultures, with the consequence that self-evaluations and self-esteem scores differ in different cultures.