Poor emotional bonding between mother and child can lead to learning problems for the child as he or she matures, according to a new study by the Sutton Trust.
The study, titled “Baby Bonds” and highlighted in a BBC story, focuses on attachment theory and how children’s ability to speak, learn and think depends heavily on how secure a bond they felt with their mother and parents in infancy.
As the Sutton Trust summarizes:
About 60 per cent of children develop strong parental bonds. The 40 per cent who lack such secure attachment are split into 25 per cent who avoid their parents when they are upset, because they ignore their needs, and 15 per cent who resist their parents because they cause them distress.
The study “makes the case that it (attachment) has an important impact on children’s future educational chances as well as their emotional well-being,” the BBC reports. “It is based on an analysis of more than 100 studies on the issue, including home visits and assessments and observations of children in a range of countries.”
The report also cites international studies suggesting that children with insecure attachment — which can stem from parents who are not secure in themselves when raising a child — are more likely to get in trouble at school, have learning problems and drop out of school entirely.
“Secure attachment really helps children with emotional and social development, and at school it really helps them to manage their behavior,” the BBC reports. “These are the things that teachers will tell you that are stopping children from learning.”
“It’s really only as we understand more about these behavior problems that we have decided that a lot of it goes back to this early bonding with parents,” said Sophie Moullin of Princeton University, the study’s lead author.
The study also calls for more of a consideration of attachment theory in policy surrounding educational attachment.
