The Stability of Attachment Security from Infancy to Adolescence and Early Adulthood: General Introduction

• Published in: Child development Vol. 71; no. 3; pp. 678 - 683
• Main Authors: Waters, Everett, Hamilton, Claire E., Weinfield, Nancy S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston, USA and Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishers Inc 01.05.2000; Blackwell Publishers; University of Chicago Press for the Society for Research in Child Development, etc; Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subjects: Adolescence; Adolescent; Adolescents; Adult; Adulthood; Attachment; Attachment Behavior; Caregivers; Child; Child development; Child psychology; Child, Preschool; Childhood; Emotional Development; Factors; Humans; Individual Differences; Infancy; Infant; Infants; Interpersonal Relations; Life Change Events; Life Events; Longitudinal Studies; Negative life events; Object Attachment; Parent Child Relationship; Personal relationships; Personality and Social Development; Posadas; Psychological Theory; Reliability; Security Classifications; Security of Attachment; Self image; Stability; Temperament; Young adulthood; Young Adults
• ISSN: 0009-3920; 1467-8624
• DOI: 10.1111/1467-8624.00175

Current attachment theory hypothesizes that attachment security during infancy influences individual differences in adult representations of attachment. We present three long-term longitudinal studies using three different samples relevant to this hypothesis. Each study assesses infant attachment by using the Ainsworth Strange Situation and adult attachment by using the Berkeley Adult Attachment Interview (AAI). Attachment security was significantly stable in the first two studies. Discontinuity in all three studies was related to negative life events and circumstances. Comparison of the results across these complementary studies affords a degree of replication and sheds light on alternative interpretations. Various mechanisms underlying the stability and instability of attachment security are discussed.