Attachment Bonds

To further understand the way in which family environments may influence children's development, this next section will explore what impact attachment and emotions can have on children. Parent and child relationships go through many changes over the years, particularly from the early years, up to middle childhood. According to Bowlby, (1975), it is early socialisation patterns acquired within the family that influence the quality of the relationships with other people. (cited in Blazevic, 2016). At this stage, children are starting to become more mature and independent and looking to branch out on their own, so these early socialisation patterns that are acquired will aid in forming new friendships. In addition, they are needing their parents
According to Bowlby, (1975), attachment bonds allow children to adapt and adjust to new situations and people. (Cited in Shumeli-Goetz, 2015) and that attachment bonds remain important and exert influence throughout the life cycle. (Shumeli-Goetz, 2015). Not only does attachment create secure bonds it also contributes to children’s development, including their self-esteem and social experiences, which in turn contribute to the development of attachment representations and to cognitive development. (Shumeli-Goetz, 2015). Therefore, positive interactions with parents who respond appropriately, and who engage their child, will develop positive emotional regulation with adults and with peers, while secure attachments show higher levels of social competence and friendship quality. Conversely, without these important connections children would develop insecure attachments that could lead to feelings of insecurity, low self-esteem and self-worth. Such negativity within the parent and child relationship can make children open to emotional regulation that can damage relationships. This leads me on to the next topic of emotions. According to Montgomery and Oates (2015) emotional
There are many powerful developmental and ecological forces at work which mark the middle childhood years through self-awareness, self-esteem, social competence and emotional regulation. From earlier discussion, it is clear how important that family issues are addressed with respect to the child and their peer relationships and that parent’s attitude, beliefs and knowledge regarding their child’s social development, peer involvement and parent-child interactions are encouraging and optimistic to allow for children’s positive development. The types of relationships that children have with parents and peers teach them invaluable skills that impact on their development. It is these influences that will aid a child’s personality to continue to develop and emerge through middle childhood as lessons are learned from parents and peers. Evidence presented has shown that parents do have an effect on children’s development in a large way and on children’s long-term development. Referring to the article by Judith Harris saying that children ‘learn most from peers, not parents’, evidence clearly shows that not that they learn more from peers, it is that they learn different viewpoints and take on different attitudes, which is not down to learning more from peers but the inevitable developmental