Nursery World - Positive relationships: Attachment, part 3: Insecure lives

Practitioners should be alert to children in their care who may lack the sense of secure attachment they need for emotional development, and offer their families whatever support they can, says Anne O'Connor.

- Q: What do we mean by insecure attachment?

If we think of attachment as a continuum or scale with 'insecure' at one end and 'secure' at the other, then we all fall somewhere on that continuum. Our early experiences and the way we were parented will have influenced the levels of our confidence, self-esteem and resilience to stress.

As a 'securely attached' child is able to explore the world confidently from the safe base provided by their attachment figures, an 'insecurely attached' child will struggle to find the confidence to take risks and absorb new information.

A securely attached child will increasingly be able to cope with their emotions and express their feelings appropriately, but an insecurely attached child will struggle to understand or to find appropriate ways to deal with frustration, anger, anxiety, disappointment and sadness. For some, this may mean uncontrollable rages and aggression; others may learn to suppress their emotions and not look to others for comfort.

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