Review: Is Parent–Child Attachment a Correlate of Children’s Emotion Regulation and Coping?

Attachment theorists have described the parent–child attachment relationship as a foundation for the emergence and development of children’s capacity for emotion regulation and coping with stress. The purpose of this review was to summarize the existing research addressing this issue. We identified...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of behavioral development 2017-01, Vol.41 (1), p.74-93
Main Authors: Zimmer-Gembeck, Melanie J., Webb, Haley J., Pepping, Christopher A., Swan, Kellie, Merlo, Ourania, Skinner, Ellen A., Avdagic, Elbina, Dunbar, Michelle
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescents
Attachment Behavior
Children
Coping
Correlation
Emotional Response
Literature Reviews
Parent Child Relationship
Stress Management
Toddlers
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Summary:Attachment theorists have described the parent–child attachment relationship as a foundation for the emergence and development of children’s capacity for emotion regulation and coping with stress. The purpose of this review was to summarize the existing research addressing this issue. We identified 23 studies that employed validated assessments of attachment, which were not based on self-report questionnaires, and separated the summary into findings for toddlers/preschool, children, and adolescents. Although most associations were weak and only a minority of the multiple possible associations tested was supported in each study, all studies (but one) reported at least one significant association between attachment and emotion regulation or coping. The evidence pointed to the regulatory and coping problems of toddlers showing signs of ambivalent attachment or the benefits of secure (relative to insecure) attachment for toddlers, children, and adolescents. Toddlers who showed signs of avoidant attachment relied more on self-related regulation (or less social-oriented regulation and coping), but it was not clear whether these responses were maladaptive. There was little information available regarding associations of ambivalent attachment with school-age children’s or adolescents’ emotion regulation. There were also few studies that assessed disorganized attachment.
ISSN:0165-0254
1464-0651
DOI:10.1177/0165025415618276