Attachment And Child Development

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Pages: 7

Raising children is a complicated process that includes opportunities for hitches and impediments that could negatively alter children’s path. From the beginning, the environment in which children interact with influences their perspective of the world and their place within in. Likewise, children’s interactions with others influences the environment that is created. These factors create room for problems within the development in children. Alternatively, there are also factors that can increase the chances of a successful development. The success of a child’s development is deeply grounded in the development of positive and personal attachments early on and displaying resilient characteristics that promote increased attention as well as the …show more content…
Attachments serve as a prominent source of children’s capacity to construct fulfilling relationships later in life and outline their own self-worth. Children are predisposed to cultivate attachments in order to increase their chances of survival, but their experiences influence the connections they are able to establish with those around them (Siegler, DeLoache, Eisenberg, 2006). The interactions infants have with their parents or caregivers have a large effect on the growth of parent-child relationships. Mary Ainsworth created an experiment called the Strange Situation in order to measure infant’s security in their relationships with their caregivers. From this experiment, researchers proposed that parents consistent in emotional and physical responsive caregiving had children who developed secure attachments, while children with less consistent parents had insecure attachments (Talbot, 1998). Over time, children who displayed secure attachments earlier tended to be more socially skilled and established closer and more intimate relationships later on. Fostering early attachments, through affection and stimulation, influences the emotional capability of children from an early …show more content…
Mentors serve as supportive figures who give the maltreated children unconditional positive regard. These figures typically help to establish a mentor role and an emotional closeness that the child usually lacks. Characters like Dumbledore, Mrs. Weasley, Professor McGonagell and so many more were important mentors to Harry throughout his experience at Hogwarts and were significant factors in his development. Overall, Harry’s mentors helped to protect him and make him feel loved after experiencing an environment that tried to convince him of the opposite. One of Harry’s most important mentors, Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts, served as a father-figure to Harry and continuously provided him with advice that helped Harry overcome the obstacles he faced and the doubts that festered within him. One of the most significant instances of this was in the second novel when Harry doubted whether he was good or evil due to similarities he uncovered between him and the evil Lord Voldemort. In a touching moment between the headmaster and Harry, Dumbledore told Harry that it is the choices people make that define them, not their abilities (Rowling, 1998). This influenced Harry and helped guide him to become the hero he developed into. The amount of involvement that characters like Dumbledore