How does early insecure attachment experiences impact personality and social-emotional domain in early childhood and later adulthood?

Childhood Attachment
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Childhood Attachment
Introduction
The emotional bond between a caregiver and a child could positively or negatively impact personality and social-emotional development during childhood. The attachment patterns formed in early childhood going on to adulthood could either be secure or insecure. While safety or reliability are attributes of secure attachment, insecure attachment results in a disorganized or an avoidant individual. Those from insecure attachment might have a problem going through certain phases of their lives from childhood. An insecure attachment could result in anxiety or self-hatred, especially when forming attachments with other children. For instance, children with insecure attachments tend to find trouble trying to connect with their colleagues emotionally. This paper looks at how an early insecure attachment experience could impact personality and social-emotional aspects in early childhood and later adulthood.
Summary of previous investigations
Early Childhood
When referring to early childhood, these are children between the ages of three to eight. Early childhood is usually a period where there is vast socio-emotional, physical, and language development. Slot (2018) posit that this development stage plays a critical role in the child's future emotional, social, language, or physical development. It determines the readiness for school and upcoming success. At this stage, children have a strong emotional attachment, and when nurtured well, they would know how to respond to risky situations (Slot, 2018). Children this age often want to learn about possibly everything since they are also expected to learn and read. This paper refers to this age bracket when it talks about early childhood.
Bonds formed out of fear are usually due to rejection or negative emotions constructed in early childhood. Unsafe environments and a less supportive caregiver contribute to an insecure attachment that is often witnessed in childhood. These initial bonds are determinants of the nature of relationships during childhood. They shape the personality of the child and their social-emotions while growing up. The question is how these attachments end up shaping these areas of development in a child. According to Prabaharan and Spadafora (2019), children with insecure attachment might have little expectations from those around them. Such children would show no emotions toward their peers and would not want to participate in peer activities.
Consequently, the insecure attachment would make some of these children aggressive. Because of their aggressiveness, their peers would not want to associate with them. This child could be uncooperative during early childhood and might disrupt their peers, especially when working in groups (Prabaharan & Spadafora, 2019). In this paper, I will categorize insecure attachment as either disorganized, anxious-ambivalent, and anxious-avoidant attachment. In early childhood, suffering abuse might make it difficult for the child to trust others. Other than being anxious from time to time or being angry at everyone, they might have difficulty communicating with others (Prabaharan & Spadafora, 2019). They would have varied emotions as they are okay now, the next they are distancing themselves.
According to Feuerman (2020), when a parent's care for a child keeps changing, the child becomes confused and never knows what to expect. The child might end up thinking that the same experience would recur with someone else other than their caregiver. Anxiety as a result of insecure attachment makes a child's behavior unpredictable. They might act like they want something when they do not. Being insecurely attached makes children in the early childhood stage either avoid, resist, or behave in a disorganized way. Sometimes these insecure attachments are not due to poor parenting because other times, parents are having problems with their emotions that end up influencing that of the child. Meaning, the child might reject their parent or, in other cases, get agitated even when the parent never meant to detach themselves.
In line with Bowlby's attachment theory, insecure attachment experiences shape children's personalities and socio-emotional aspects at this age. Thompson (2020) posits that children with insecure attachment tend to be grumpy. They would often cry as they are hoping to catch the attention of someone more concerned. They might also act a bit irresponsible and would lack proper socialization. Many might find their personality annoying and challenging to accommodate. Social-emotionally, children who experienced insecure attachment might be intolerant of how others feel, whether they are hurting them or not (Thompson, 2020). For instance, in a classroom, such a child would not want to share what they have with others. They would be less caring and having aggressive impulses.
According to Lewis‐Morrarty et al. (2015), insecurely attached children might hide their actual emotions, making it difficult for their peers to understand how they feel. Their peers would exclude themselves from them and, as a result, cause them to have low-self-esteem through school and beyond. Usually, these children would turn to their friends, hoping that they would rescue them from the way they fee (Lewis‐Morrarty et al., 2015). However, while trying to find safety in these friendships, they would always get disappointed when they do not. Their jealousy or neediness is because of their history of failed relationships. Few past friendship failures from insecure attachments may bring them to doubt or project their anger on their peers or adults.
Other times, insecurely attached children isolate themselves from their peers or adults to protect themselves from getting hurt in the future. Gillath, Karantzas, and Selcuk (2017) posit that in early childhood, the child would keep a few close friends or avoid social interactions for fear of being hurt. They might enjoy the company of their friends yet get anxious when they tend to be too tight. They might exhibit high self-esteem when, in reality, they have self-hatred for themselves. Insecurely attached children might also resist friendships because of the ups and downs they keep experiencing (Gillath, Karantzas & Selcuk, 2017). Though these children fear rejection, they keep pushing others away and always acting suspicious of their friends. An example is when a child who, because of their parents' absence, distances themselves from peers or adults fearing the ordeal's recurrence.
Early Adulthood
When talking about adulthood, this paper refers to early adulthood. It is an individual who is just beginning their adulthood and is of twenty to forty. Several activities usually characterize this development stage. Fraley (2019) posits that early adulthood comprises of young adults who, at this time, are striving to gain autonomy. While trying to be independent, they start having interests and disinterests. Depending on their socialization, they gain quick emotional stability. They also begin to establish a career and get themselves in intimate relationships (Fraley, 2019). Therefore, young adults who grew up in insecure attachments will fail to see the significance of friendships. According to Raby et al. (2017), they will have less trust in others and perhaps much faith in themselves. Sometimes they might not want to share their goals with others for fear of what they might think of them.
These young adults feel quite uncomfortable around others, sometimes even their peers. They would also get jealous when their partner is showing their love to someone else. They get anxious quite often for fear that their peers or adults might be withdrawing their love (Raby et al., 2017). Unless they were socialized differently, young adults with insecure attachments from early childhood have trust issues, even in friendship. Sometimes they do not trust themselves since. With low satisfaction in friendships, young adults are prone to frequent conflicts. They might also have a problem reciprocating the support from those around them (Raby et al., 2017). At this development stage, they are the most anxious over everything from jobs, friendships, education, etc.
Joeng (2017) posits that children who lacked a secure relationship with their caregivers have difficulty transitioning into early adulthood. When they grow to be young adults, they start seeking friendship from more trustworthy, kind, and supportive people. They always hope to find someone with the personality of a secure caregiver. Meaning they form friendships with someone different from those who raised them. On the contrary, sometimes they always end up with insecure people. Even in terms of personality, they attract people of the same character as theirs. Therefore, the early insecure attachment experiences shape the young adult's attachments (Joeng et al., (2017). Insecure attachment experienced in early childhood dictates the nature of friendship a young adult would have in their early adulthood development stage.
Based on the argument that early experiences shape future outcomes, young adults who had unhealthy relationships with their caregivers will likely have the same unhealthy relationships when adults. According to Joeng (2017), their negative associations with their peers will reflect their future friendships. However, according to Bowlby's attachment theory, it is no guarantee that early experiences have to shape future events. Sometimes one might grow up in a very secure attachment relationship yet end up in a problematic friendship with their peers or adults (Joeng et al., (2017). The significant early experiences are somewhat a depiction of what the person might experience in the future. They are somewhat a determinant of the nature of friendships a young adult who was in an insecure attachment from early childhood will have.
Childhood experiences are critical in how emotions develop. As we had earlier seen, early childhood is the stage where these emotions develop more, unlike in the infant stage. Unsafe spaces and exposure to risks at an early childhood age might result in a young adult at risk of experiencing anxiety or depression from fear of never meeting trustworthy friends. Growing up in insecure attachments contributes to an adult who distances themselves from having friendships with adults or their peers. They might keep secrets from their peers and hide behind the idea of being independent to protect themselves from getting hurt. Such techniques end up destroying their friendships when they are adults. They might admire having close friendships yet are not ready to open up with others. As adults,...