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Attachment theory and research.

• Pehr Granqvist Pehr Granqvist Stockholm University
•  and  Robbie Duschinsky Robbie Duschinsky Sidney Sussex College Cambridge
• https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190236557.013.51
• Published online: 31 August 2021

Attachment theory was founded by John Bowlby (1907–1990), a British child psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. The theory builds on an integration of evolutionary theory and ethology, cybernetics and cognitive science, as well as psychoanalytic object relations theory. The theory postulates that an attachment behavioral system evolved via natural selection processes. Bowlby conceived of the attachment system as a behavioral control system that continuously monitors the offspring’s proximity to caregivers, which has in turn been associated with protection from dangers and thus increased chances of survival and reproduction in humans’ and many other mammals’ ancestral environments. Attachment is a species-wide phenomenon denoting the strong bonds that children form to their caregiver(s), seeking to maintain proximity and communication, protesting separations, and using the caregiver(s) as a safe haven to return to for comfort and protection and as a secure base to explore the environment from. Attachments take time, maturation, and repeated sequences of interaction to form and are typically observed from the second half of children’s first year of life onward. According to the theory, attachment-related experiences with the caregiver(s) become internalized in the form of cognitive-affective representations of self and others (internal working models [IWMs]) that organize the child’s behavior and displays of affect in relation to the caregiver(s). Although malleable, such IWMs display a certain measure of continuity across time and situations and may generalize to affect the individual’s expectancies and behavioral inclinations in other and later interpersonal relationships. As pioneered by Mary Ainsworth and colleagues, attachments vary in quality, largely depending on the caregiver’s behaviors (e.g., responsivity and sensitivity to the child’s signals), whereas evidence for a direct influence of genetic heritability is limited. Variations in attachment are typically described using two dimensions (secure–insecure, organized–disorganized) subsuming four categories (secure, insecure–avoidant, insecure-resistant–ambivalent, disorganized–disoriented). Much of the empirical research regarding attachment has focused on these variations and their measurement. Ainsworth and colleagues’ Strange Situation Procedure (SSP), applicable for children aged 10–18 months, is often heralded as the “gold standard” attachment measurement tool. The concerted body of research indicates that secure attachment (or associated factors), marked by confidence in the caregiver’s availability, is generally a protective factor in socioemotional development. In contrast, insecure (avoidant and resistant) attachment, characterized by lack of confidence in the caregiver’s availability, is generally a vulnerability factor in development. Disorganized attachment, reflecting confused, conflicted, or apprehensive child behaviors in the presence of the caregiver (in the SSP), is a risk factor in development, most notably for externalizing behavior problems. Notably, the effect sizes observed have typically been small to moderate, and much is unknown about linking mechanisms and moderating influences. Although most readily observed in early childhood, humans form attachments throughout the lifespan. Accordingly, much research has also focused on adult (e.g., spousal) attachment and the intergenerational transmission of attachment from caregivers to their children.

• attachment quality
• development

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Attachment Theory Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best attachment theory topic ideas & essay examples, 🥇 most interesting attachment theory topics to write about.

• 📌 Simple & Easy Communication Essay Titles
• Cognitive Development and Attachment Theory The second substage is the first to conduct and principal circular responses. It is linked to the start of insight and real imagination.
• The Application of Attachment Theory The assumptions of this theory may be successfully applied in practice in a row of spheres including child care, children’s clinical psychology, and adult clinical psychology.
• Attachment Theory and Emotion Experience in Life According to the proponents of the attachment theory, children develop a bond with their caregivers, which grow into an emotional bond.
• Bowlby’s Stages of Attachment and Bowlby’s Theory Bowlby’s four stages of attachment is a framework that holds that newborns undergo four phases of associations with their primary caregiver namely the pre-attachment, clearly defined attachment, attachment-in-the-making, and reciprocal connections. The attachment in the […]
• Attachment Theory: Term Definition Bowlby proposed that a two month-old attachment is made up of a number of component instinctual responses that have the function of binding the infant to the mother and the mother to the infant.
• Secure Attachment in Psychological Theories One of the tasks is to examine the effects of temperamental, medical, or behavioral characteristics of a child or parent on the quality of attachment.
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• Attachment, Intimacy, Autonomy: Using Attachment Theory in Adult Psychotherapy
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• The Key Arguments, Theoretical Value, and Related Theories of John Bowlby’s Attachment Theory
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• How Has Attachment Theory Been Used to Account for Differences in the Development of Social Relationships?
• Modern Attachment Theory and Its Effects on the Development of Brain
• Internal Working Models in Attachment Relationships: Elaborating a Central Construct in Attachment Theory

📌 Simple & Easy Attachment Theory Essay Titles

• Relations Among Relationships: Contributions From Attachment Theory and Research
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• What Does Attachment Theory Tell Us About Working With Distressing Voices?
• How Has Bowlby’s Attachment Theory Been Modified by the Findings of Later Research?
• Bowlby’s Attachment Theory and Paiget’s Cognitive Theory Compared
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• Frontiers in Psychology
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Trauma, Attachment and Culture

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Research has consistently highlighted an increased prevalence of mental health problems, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety, following both man-made and natural disasters. Secure attachment and mentalizing have been previously identified as potential protective factors ...

Keywords : Trauma, Attachment, Mentalizing, Culture, PTSD

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Cuddled cows who work as therapy animals showed a strong preference for women compared to men, study finds

A new study -- published in the Human-Animal Interactions journal -- reveals that cows who are cuddled as therapy animals showed a strong preference for interactions with women when compared to men.

In turn, the research, which opens a new era on whether some therapies may be initially stronger based upon gender and not procedure, highlighted that the women also reported greater attachment behaviours towards the steers.

Dr Katherine Compitus, Clinical Assistant Professor at New York University, and Dr Sonya Bierbower, Associate Professor at United States Military Academy West Point, conducted the research using the Human-Animal Interaction Scale (HAIS) as a measurement tool.

HAIS is a 24-item self-report instrument designed to describe and quantify behaviours performed by humans and nonhuman animals during an episode of interaction.

Enrichment benefits of cattle involved in bovine-assisted therapy

The scientists examined the behavioural and cognitive traits of cattle who work as therapy animals and special attention was paid to the welfare and enrichment benefits of cattle involved in bovine-assisted therapy.

Dr Compitus and Dr Bierbower, who conducted their study at the Surrey Hills Sanctuary in New York State, USA, with two steers -- named Magnus and Callum -- and 11 people aged 13 to 79, say little research has so far addressed the therapeutic benefits of animal-assisted interventions with farm animals.

Of the research sample, six were females and five were males.

Dr Compitus said, "We have discovered in the current study that bovine-assisted therapy may not only be an effective treatment model that benefits human participants but appears to be enriching to the cattle participants as well, as shown by their proximity to and continuous interactions with humans."

Integrative model used in conjunction with other methods

Animal-assisted therapy (AAT) is an integrative model used in conjunction with other methods such as psychodynamic psychotherapy and cognitive behavioural therapy.

The most common AAT model, the scientists say, is when a companion animal, such as a dog or cat, is integrated into a therapeutic plan.

This model, they add, has been studied with a variety of populations and conditions, from treating substance abuse to autism, often with positive results.

Organizations that certify therapy animals will sometimes certify several species of animals to work as a therapeutic partner, such as llamas, miniature horses, and rabbits.

However, to date there has been little research addressing the therapeutic benefits of animal-assisted interventions with farm animals. Cows have special behavioural traits that allow them to bond with people in a way that is unique to their size and temperament.

Dr Bierbower said, "Two of the gaps in the research we address in this study are the inclusion of cattle in AAT and an examination of the cognitive processes of animals involved in AAT."

Cattle that enjoy human company will have reduced stress signals

Cattle that are uncomfortable with a human presence, the researchers suggest, will show an increase in stress signals such as vocalizations when involved in therapy work, while cattle that enjoy human company will have reduced stress signals.

Other notable behaviours in cattle during AAT may include lying down and licking or smelling the person. This is indicative of their comfort level with humans since cows are known to engage in social grooming.

With the two cattle in the study, Dr Compitus and Dr Bierbower found that after 45 minutes of contact with the humans, Magnus and Callum often smelled or licked them and accepted food from them.

They also allowed physical human-initiated interactions in the form of hugs, grooming, petting, or kisses.

The animals rarely made unfriendly or aggressive gestures towards them, though they would occasionally decline to interact.

One participant stated that she was worried the bulls would be more aggressive but "fell in love with cows" after the session. All participants reported having an overall positive session with the steers and most stated they would recommend bovine assisted therapy to a friend.

Strong preference or interactions with women compared to men

Dr Compitus said, "The results of this study show that the steers showed a strong preference or interactions with women compared to men, and, in turn, the women reported stronger attachment behaviours towards the steers.

"It is unclear without further testing whether the animals sought out the attention of women in general or if the women were more likely to initiate the actions when compared to the men participants."

The scientists conclude that they discovered in the study that bovine-assisted therapy may not only be an effective treatment model that benefits human participation but appears to be enriching to the cattle participants, as well, as shown by their proximity to and continuous interactions with humans.

• Veterinary Medicine
• Cows, Sheep, Pigs
• Behavioral Science
• Agriculture and Food
• Wild Animals
• Life Sciences
• Adult stem cell
• Separation anxiety disorder

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Materials provided by CABI . Original written by Wayne Coles. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference :

• Katherine Compitus, Sonya M. Bierbower. Cow cuddling: Cognitive considerations in bovine-assisted therapy . Human-Animal Interactions , 2024; DOI: 10.1079/hai.2024.0016

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Study explains why the brain can robustly recognize images, even without color

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Even though the human visual system has sophisticated machinery for processing color, the brain has no problem recognizing objects in black-and-white images. A new study from MIT offers a possible explanation for how the brain comes to be so adept at identifying both color and color-degraded images.

Using experimental data and computational modeling, the researchers found evidence suggesting the roots of this ability may lie in development. Early in life, when newborns receive strongly limited color information, the brain is forced to learn to distinguish objects based on their luminance, or intensity of light they emit, rather than their color. Later in life, when the retina and cortex are better equipped to process colors, the brain incorporates color information as well but also maintains its previously acquired ability to recognize images without critical reliance on color cues.

The findings are consistent with previous work showing that initially degraded visual and auditory input can actually be beneficial to the early development of perceptual systems.

“This general idea, that there is something important about the initial limitations that we have in our perceptual system, transcends color vision and visual acuity. Some of the work that our lab has done in the context of audition also suggests that there’s something important about placing limits on the richness of information that the neonatal system is initially exposed to,” says Pawan Sinha, a professor of brain and cognitive sciences at MIT and the senior author of the study.

The findings also help to explain why children who are born blind but have their vision restored later in life, through the removal of congenital cataracts, have much more difficulty identifying objects presented in black and white. Those children, who receive rich color input as soon as their sight is restored, may develop an overreliance on color that makes them much less resilient to changes or removal of color information.

MIT postdocs Marin Vogelsang and Lukas Vogelsang, and Project Prakash research scientist Priti Gupta, are the lead authors of the study, which appears today in Science . Sidney Diamond, a retired neurologist who is now an MIT research affiliate, and additional members of the Project Prakash team are also authors of the paper.

Seeing in black and white

The researchers’ exploration of how early experience with color affects later object recognition grew out of a simple observation from a study of children who had their sight restored after being born with congenital cataracts. In 2005, Sinha launched Project Prakash (the Sanskrit word for “light”), an effort in India to identify and treat children with reversible forms of vision loss.

Many of those children suffer from blindness due to dense bilateral cataracts. This condition often goes untreated in India, which has the world’s largest population of blind children, estimated between 200,000 and 700,000.

Children who receive treatment through Project Prakash may also participate in studies of their visual development, many of which have helped scientists learn more about how the brain's organization changes following restoration of sight, how the brain estimates brightness, and other phenomena related to vision.

In this study, Sinha and his colleagues gave children a simple test of object recognition, presenting both color and black-and-white images. For children born with normal sight, converting color images to grayscale had no effect at all on their ability to recognize the depicted object. However, when children who underwent cataract removal were presented with black-and-white images, their performance dropped significantly.

This led the researchers to hypothesize that the nature of visual inputs children are exposed to early in life may play a crucial role in shaping resilience to color changes and the ability to identify objects presented in black-and-white images. In normally sighted newborns, retinal cone cells are not well-developed at birth, resulting in babies having poor visual acuity and poor color vision. Over the first years of life, their vision improves markedly as the cone system develops.

Because the immature visual system receives significantly reduced color information, the researchers hypothesized that during this time, the baby brain is forced to gain proficiency at recognizing images with reduced color cues. Additionally, they proposed, children who are born with cataracts and have them removed later may learn to rely too much on color cues when identifying objects, because, as they experimentally demonstrated in the paper, with mature retinas, they commence their post-operative journeys with good color vision.

To rigorously test that hypothesis, the researchers used a standard convolutional neural network, AlexNet, as a computational model of vision. They trained the network to recognize objects, giving it different types of input during training. As part of one training regimen, they initially showed the model grayscale images only, then introduced color images later on. This roughly mimics the developmental progression of chromatic enrichment as babies’ eyesight matures over the first years of life.

Another training regimen comprised only color images. This approximates the experience of the Project Prakash children, because they can process full color information as soon as their cataracts are removed.

The researchers found that the developmentally inspired model could accurately recognize objects in either type of image and was also resilient to other color manipulations. However, the Prakash-proxy model trained only on color images did not show good generalization to grayscale or hue-manipulated images.

“What happens is that this Prakash-like model is very good with colored images, but it’s very poor with anything else. When not starting out with initially color-degraded training, these models just don’t generalize, perhaps because of their over-reliance on specific color cues,” Lukas Vogelsang says.

The robust generalization of the developmentally inspired model is not merely a consequence of it having been trained on both color and grayscale images; the temporal ordering of these images makes a big difference. Another object-recognition model that was trained on color images first, followed by grayscale images, did not do as well at identifying black-and-white objects.

“It’s not just the steps of the developmental choreography that are important, but also the order in which they are played out,” Sinha says.

The advantages of limited sensory input

By analyzing the internal organization of the models, the researchers found that those that begin with grayscale inputs learn to rely on luminance to identify objects. Once they begin receiving color input, they don’t change their approach very much, since they’ve already learned a strategy that works well. Models that began with color images did shift their approach once grayscale images were introduced, but could not shift enough to make them as accurate as the models that were given grayscale images first.

A similar phenomenon may occur in the human brain, which has more plasticity early in life, and can easily learn to identify objects based on their luminance alone. Early in life, the paucity of color information may in fact be beneficial to the developing brain, as it learns to identify objects based on sparse information.

“As a newborn, the normally sighted child is deprived, in a certain sense, of color vision. And that turns out to be an advantage,” Diamond says.

Researchers in Sinha’s lab have observed that limitations in early sensory input can also benefit other aspects of vision, as well as the auditory system. In 2022, they used computational models to show that early exposure to only low-frequency sounds, similar to those that babies hear in the womb, improves performance on auditory tasks that require analyzing sounds over a longer period of time, such as recognizing emotions. They now plan to explore whether this phenomenon extends to other aspects of development, such as language acquisition.

The research was funded by the National Eye Institute of NIH and the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity.

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Attachment Style and Empathy in Late children, Adolescents, and Adults: Meta-analytic Review **

Estilo de apego y empatía en infantes tardíos, adolescentes y adultos: revisión meta-analítica, florencia de sanctis.

1 Instituto de ciencias para la Familia, Universidad Austral, Mariano Acosta 1611, Buenos Aires, Argentina., Universidad Austral, Instituto de ciencias para la Familia, Universidad Austral, Buenos Aires , Argentina

3 Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina., Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Buenos Aires , Argentina

Belén Mesurado

2 Instituto de Filosofía, Universidad Austral, Mariano Acosta 1611, Buenos Aires, Argentina., Universidad Austral, Instituto de Filosofía, Universidad Austral, Buenos Aires , Argentina

Associated Data

• Griffin D. W., Bartholomew K. Relationship Scales Questionnaire (RSQ) [Database record]. APA PsycTests. 1994. [ CrossRef ]
• Kerns K. A., Klepac L., Cole A. Security Scale. 1996. [Database record]. APA Psyc Tests. [ CrossRef ]

All relevant data are within the article, as well as the information support files.

Attachment has a fundamental role in the development of empathy, which helps people interact with others and prevents aggressive behaviors. It is believed that having a secure attachment can promote empathy. However, there is no clear evidence about the relationship between insecure attachment styles and empathy. Therefore, a meta-analysis was performed to clarify the relation between different types of attachment and empathy from late children to adults (9-47 years). It was conducted using 14 studies (11542 participants) for the secure attachment, 7 studies (3115 participants) for the avoidant, and 8 studies (3479 participants) for the anxious-ambivalent.

Results indicated that secure attachment was positively correlated with empathy, avoidant attachment was negatively correlated, and anxious-ambivalent attachment had an inconclusive relationship. Whereas the results obtained for the secure and avoidant attachment with empathy are consistent with literature, the inconsistencies in anxious-ambivalent style may be due to a duality of feelings experienced by these individuals, who go from high levels of empathy (to be accepted) to low levels of empathy (to avoid distressing emotions).

We suggest broadening the limit in age, include the multidirectional nature of empathy, as well as the effect of gender and different sorts of affiliations (parents, couples) for future studies.

El apego tiene un papel fundamental en el desarrollo de la empatía, la cual ayuda a las personas a interactuar y previene conductas agresivas. Aunque se cree que tener un apego seguro puede promover la empatía, no existe evidencia clara sobre la relación entre los apegos inseguros y la empatía. Consecuentemente, se realizó un metaanálisis para aclarar la relación entre los diferentes tipos de apego y la empatía desde infantes tardíos hasta adultos (9-47 años). Se incluyeron 14 estudios (11542 participantes) para el apego seguro, 7 estudios (3115 participantes) para el evitativo y 8 estudios (3479 participantes) para el ansioso-ambivalente.

Los resultados indicaron que el apego seguro se correlacionó positivamente con la empatía, el apego evitativo se correlacionó negativamente y el apego ansioso-ambivalente tuvo una relación no concluyente. Mientras que los resultados obtenidos para el apego seguro y evitativo con empatía concuerdan con la literatura, las inconsistencias en el ansioso-ambivalente pueden deberse a una dualidad de sentimientos experimentados por estos individuos, experimentando desde altos niveles de empatía (buscando aceptación) a bajos niveles de empatía (evitando emociones estresantes).

Sugerimos ampliar el límite de edad, incluir la multidireccionalidad de la empatía, el efecto del género y diferentes afiliaciones (padres, parejas) para futuros estudios.

1. introduction

Attachment representations have a fundamental role in the development of different social skills, in particular empathy, which helps people to interact with others and prevent aggressive behaviors. It is believed that having a secure attachment can promote empathy. However, there is no clear evidence about the relationship between the insecure attachment styles and empathy. For example, some studies have shown that anxious-ambivalent adolescents’ attachment style has a negative relationship with empathy ( Khodabakhsh, 2012 ), while others have shown a non-significant relation to empathy ( Delhaye, 2013 ) or even a positive relation ( Amiri, 2019 ). The same goes with avoidant attachment, as some studies have shown a negative relationship with empathy ( Khodabakhsh, 2012 ) while others have shown non-significant relation to empathy ( Goldstein & Higgins-D’Alessandro, 2001 ). Therefore, inconsistent results whenever analyzing the relationship between attachment styles and empathy may be due to the several dimensions that are involved in the concept of emotional empathy. The aim of this study is to do a meta-analytic review on the relationship of different types of attachments with empathy to clarify this relation. For this research, studies on late children, adolescents, and adults were considered with ages ranging from 9 to 47 years old.

1.1 Attachment

The concept of attachment has been conceptualized in different ways, such as a strong affectional bond between a child and its caregiver ( Ainsworth, 1989 ), or as a behavior in children that consists of seeking proximity to a protective figure ( Bowlby, 1969 ). In adolescence and adulthood, the concept of attachment refers to the current accounts of the past experiences with their caregivers ( Delhaye, 2013 ). Following the behavioral conception of attachment proposed by Bowlby (1969) , there are two complementary behavioral systems that have evolved in order to get survival for humans across all times. The first behavioral system is the attachment system, in which a person seeks for proximity, expressing their needs and discomfort. This system gets activated in times of vulnerability, during long periods of helplessness ( Ainsworth et al., 2015 ). The second behavioral system is the caregiving provided, usually from the mother or the main caregiver, which responds to the signals of distress in the child and provides comfort and care for the child. These dynamic relations between the two systems result in a physiological regulation and security sense in the relationship ( Stern & Cassidy, 2018 ).

The primary experiences of this interplay between the two systems, in which the child feels discomfort and expresses distress, and the caregiver provides -or not- care, start to develop in the child the internal representations of attachment relations with the caregiver. These representations function as a prototype for later relationships in life. Bowlby (1973) stated that two key features are identified in these internal representations or working models. One is the self-image, established when the self is judged to be a person towards the attachment figure is likely -or not- to respond in a helpful way. On the other hand, there is the image of others, which is derived from the judgment of attachment figures as being responsible and protective.

These internal working models of attachment are the core components of relationships with others, because having a positive or negative image of the self and others will impact directly in the quality of the interaction with other people and in the social skills. Stern and Cassidy (2018) suggest that consistent and sensitive caring fosters secure internal working models in the child and inconsistent and insensitive caring will shape insecure mental representations.

Based on these behavioral attachment systems developed in childhood, different types of attachment patterns present across the lifespan have been described and measured.

1.2. Attachment Classifications and Assessment

Since the concept of attachment has evolved through many years and has been largely studied by many researchers and theoreticians over the last sixty years, a wide variety of attachment classifications and instruments have been developed ( Jewell et al., 2019 ).

The first classification of attachment by Ainsworth categorized attachment patterns tracing them from childhood to adolescence and adulthood. She started by studying the secure pattern of attachment, in which the caregiver allowed for the safe exploration of the environment during childhood. In this pattern, individuals are more able to share and express openly their feelings during adolescence and adulthood, valuing attachment relationships with their family ( Ainsworth & Bell, 1970 ; Ainsworth et al., 1978 ; Main et al., 1985 ). The second pattern described was the avoidant pattern that for Ainsworth (1989) begins in early childhood, when the caregiver is insensitive to the needs of the infant, causing for the late adolescent or adult to not easily rely on the family and undervaluing attachment relationships. The last pattern identified by Ainsworth and Bell (1970) was the insecure anxious-ambivalent or rejecting pattern that was rooted in childhood by inconsistent levels of caregiving and followed up through adolescence and adulthood with the developing of anxiety and fear of abandonment.

Regarding the measurement of attachment, middle childhood and adolescence constitute developmental phases for which several instruments exist ( Bosmans & Kerns, 2015 ). Two continuous self-report instruments are widely used. First, the Children’s Attachment Style Classification Questionnaire ( Finzi-Dottan et al., 2012 ), which is aimed at children in latency age and follows Ainsworth’s 1969 ) attachment style classification. Another measure for latency age children is the Kerns Security Scale ( Kerns et al., 1996 ), in which the classification of the different attachment styles is summarized in the distinction between insecure and secure attachment to the mother or the father ( Kim & Kochanska, 2017 ). Others scales, like the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment ( Armsden & Greenberg, 1987 ), also take into account the figure of attachment that can be the mother, the father or peers. This measure is used mostly for late children and adolescents and three broad dimensions are assessed: degree of mutual trust, quality of communication, and extent of anger and alienation. It classifies attachment between secure and insecure for mother, father, and peers.

Most self-report adult attachment instruments were developed focusing on romantic relationships such as the Experiences in Close Relationship Scale (ECR; Brennan et al., 1998 ), the Relationships Style Questionnaire (RSQ; Griffin & Bartholomew, 1994 ), and the Adult Attachment Questionnaire (AAQ; Simpson, 1990 ). These measures excluded adolescents and adults without experience in such relationships, especially those that were too young to be romantically involved. Therefore, some other self-report measures such as the Attachment Style Questionnaire (ASQ; Feeney et al., 1994 ) were developed to research the role of attachment processes in general, rather than in romantic or close relationships ( Karantzas et al., 2010 ). This self-report measure was developed based on the classification of Bartholomew and Horowitz (1991) , which followed the concept of internal working models of the self and others as positive or negative. Four logically derived categories emerged by the combination of these variants: secure, anxious ambivalent, dismissive avoidant (dismissing of intimacy and strongly independent), and fearful avoidant (fearful of intimacy and socially avoidant). Another self-report measure of attachment for adults based on the internal working models is the CaMir (a French acronym that stands for Cartes: Modèles individuels de relation and translates into English as Cards-Individual models of relationships) ( Pierrehumbert et al., 1996 ), or the CaMir-R ( Balluerka et al., 2011 ), which is a Q-sort self-report questionnaire that measures present or past attachment representations within the family. These instruments provide a continuous score of attachment ( Delhaye, 2013 ).

In Table 1 there is a summary of attachment classifications and their assessment in terms of the available instruments according to the authors that were researched within this study.

1.3. Empathy and its Relationship with Attachment

The relationship between empathy and attachment has been examined for several decades ( Teymoori & Shahrazad, 2012 ). Empathy has been defined as the ability to understand and share the emotional state or context of another person, and the ability to communicate this understanding ( Cohen & Strayer, 1996 ; Kim & Kochanska, 2017 ). Davis (1983) makes emphasis on the reaction of an individual to the experiences of another individual. Therefore, empathy is viewed as a multidimensional construct which includes the cognitive and affective components of empathy, but also takes into account the neurobiological processes. These components seem to be shared with attachment ( Ruckstaetter et al., 2017 ). The cognitive component of empathy involves intellectually understanding another person’s perspective, and it is a conscious process that results of taking the perspective of the other person, whereas the affective aspect of empathy is automatic, mostly unconscious and connected with the emotional resonance with another’s emotion and distress ( Gladstein, 1983 ; Smith, 2006 ). The affective empathy includes the empathic concern dimension and personal distress is characterized by the tendency to experience and share the emotions of others ( Teymoori & Shahrazad, 2012 ).

While attachment style refers to the affective bonds between people, empathy refers to the response and attention to the emotional emotions and states of others ( Parcon, 2017 ). From the evolutionary theory perspective, both concepts have evolved together, because parents had to develop empathy, together with the caregiving system, in order to recognize and respond to the biological needs of their descendants, and provide care to ensure the survival of the species ( Ruckstaetter et al., 2017 ). It has been argued that secure attachment with parents creates an appropriate climate at home that fosters interpersonal growth and the development of social skills like empathy ( Garber et al., 1997 ; Kim & Kochanska, 2017 ; Zahn-Waxler & Radke-Yarrow, 1990 ).

On the other hand, regarding the avoidant attachment style, some authors found a negative relation with empathy ( Boag & Carnelley, 2016 ; Burnette et al., 2009 ; Joireman et al., 2002 ; Kestenbaum et al., 1989 ; Khodabakhsh, 2012 ; Wayment, 2006 ), because this attachment style rejects protective relationships and presents an arrogant attitude, considering others as unworthy of care. Avoidant people may respond to the distress of others with high physiological arousal, showing almost no concern, and suppressing empathy in an attempt to ignore or escape other’s pain ( Stern & Cassidy, 2018 ). This attachment style is more likely to report behavior problems, aggression, and emotional inexpressiveness, resulting in lack of social skills, in which empathy is included ( Khodabakhsh, 2012 ). According to the findings of Panfile and Laible (2012) , and Delhaye (2013) , avoidant individuals end up getting detached to the emotional situation of others, making it almost impossible to develop empathy. Regarding the anxious-ambivalent attachment style and its relation with empathy, there is no clear evidence about the results. Some studies sup port the idea that previous vulnerabilities experienced by anxious people can foster a positive relation between anxious-ambivalent attachment and emotional empathy( Trusty et al.,2005 ; Wei et al.,2011 ). In a group study by Robinson et al. (2015) , the anxious-ambivalent attachment style predicted a higher need to belong, associated with a greater focus of the group rather than the self-individual. This was explained by the constant seekof these individuals for social acceptance, which motivates them to provide help and being empathic in order to get recognition.

Other studies support the idea that there is no relationship between anxious-ambivalent attachment and empathy ( Boag & Carnelley, 2016 ; Kestenbaum et al., 1989 ; Wayment, 2006 ). Moreover, in a study among college students, a negative relation has been found between anxious-ambivalent attachment and empathy ( Joireman et al., 2002 ). This could be related to the extreme anxiety of the individual that becomes overwhelmed by the situation of others ( Delhaye et al., 2013 ).

Considering the multidimensional nature of empathy, it is possible to understand how the relationship between attachment styles and empathy is neither linear nor predictable, but it nonetheless exists. On this regard, Henschel et al. (2020) presented a study in which they found a relationship between attachment styles, emotional regulation, and empathy. They concluded that the attachment styles had an impact on both affective and cognitive empathy, specifically by the abilities displayed by adults in terms of emotional regulation. It was important for the authors to highlight the need to distinguish between the cognitive and the affective dimensions of empathy that, in their opinions, would be affected in different manners, thus affecting in many ways the relationship between empathy and attachment styles, as well as the individual’s mental construct and responses to others’ emotional distress. For Henschel et al. (2020), the correct identification of defining aspects in the relationship between cognitive and affective empathy with the attachment styles could be of use in the design of interventions to develop socio-emotional competences.

On the same vein, Ardenghi et al. (2020) also came to the conclusion that the consideration of the cognitive and affective dimensions of empathy in relation to the attachment style is an important consideration in social studies, and also to be analyzed in order to promote the empathy within interpersonal setting in an academic environment (specifically for medical students in their case).

Li et al. (2021) also presented a meta-analysis on the relationship between empathy and attachment for children and adolescents (0-18 years old), finding a positive relationship between secure attachment and empathy, no relation between empathy and the ambivalent attachment style, and a negative relation between avoidant attachment style and empathy. The authors were of the same idea that the multidimensional nature of cognitive and affective empathy has an important role in the assessment of the relationship between empathy and the attachment style.

Based on empirical evidence described above, the purpose of this study is to do a meta-analytic review on the relationship of different types of attachments with empathy with the intention of clarifying their relationship. While the meta-analysis by Li et al. (2021) studied the relationship of attachment and empathy in infants and early and middle adolescents, this novel metaanalysis studies the relationship between attachment and empathy in self-report instruments that consider only attachment to parents in the ranges of 9 to 47 years old.

2. Methodology

2.1. inclusion and exclusion criteria, and search strategie.

Research that analyzed the relations between different types of parental or general attachment orientations and empathy were included. The participants’ age was an exclusion criterion, since studies with infants or babies were excluded. For this research, studies on late children, adolescents, and adults were considered with ages ranging from 9 to 47 years old.

The reason for not including studies on infants was that we intended to measure the relationship between empathy and attachment styles, taking into account selfreport instruments that were filled out by participants. In that sense, it was expected that, due to their maturity, adolescents and adults were expected to be more self-aware of their own traits pertaining the subject at hand; therefore, granting us the possibility to correlate between the selected studies. Also, most measurement instruments considered were best suited for late children and adolescents. Nonetheless, it is important to highlight that the exclusion of infants-related studies add a limitation to the research.

We did not differentiate the dimension of the empathy; both cognitive and emotional dimensions were included as a general measure of empathy, because there were not enough studies to feed this meta-analytic review, which considered the multidimensional aspect of empathy and could bring the information needed to calculate effect size estimates. Studies that analyzed the relations between partner attachment or peer’s attachment, and empathy were excluded.

The studies included in this meta-analytic review were recollected from 6 databases: Scielo, NCBI, Science Direct, JStor, Dialnet and Ebscohost. The search was carried out two times, the first from July 2018 to December 2018, and the second from January 2021 to February 2021. Articles were screened by title, keywords, and abstract. Spanish and English papers of peer-reviewed journals were included in the selection process. We used the following keywords during search: “Attachment”, “Empathy”, “Attachment theory” and “Empathy Development”, and their combinations “Attachment and Empathy”, “Attachment theory and Empathy”, “Attachment and Empathy Development” and “Attachment theory and Empathy Development”.

When we found missing data in the papers, we contacted the principal author for additional information. Nine authors did not respond to our requirements.

2.2. Process of extracting the data

Three researchers were included in the process of extracting the data. Two researchers checked titles and abstracts of the papers from the database and then they selected the full texts for a deeper review. The discrepancies were solved by consensus and considering the supervision of a third researcher. Finally, fourteen studies were selected to analyze the relation of secure attachment and empathy, seven studies were selected to analyze the relation of anxious attachment and empathy, and six studies were selected to analyze the relation of avoidant attachment and empathy. Tables 1 and ​ and2 2 show the principal information about the researches included in this meta-analysis: main author, year in which the article was published, country were the study were conducted, sample size, type of attachment measured, attachment scale used in the study, type of empathy measured, and type of design.

2.3. Statistical Procedure

We extracted the correlation coefficient and size sample from each paper included in this meta-analysis. We used the Comprehensive Meta-analysis program version 2.0 ( Borenstein et al., 2004 ) to establish r as the index of effect size. Moreover, the Comprehensive Meta-analysis program was used to calculate Forest plot (or blobbogram), Funnel plot (used to detect publication bias) and Heterogeneity between studies. With the objective of assessing Heterogeneity I2 and Q-value were calculated.

In order to make the analysis, it was decided to split the attachment styles considered into two categories: (a) secure attachment and (b) insecure attachment, which included the studies on the avoidant and anxious attachment. This was made considering the presupposition (based on literature) that a secure attachment was expected to have a positive relation with empathy, while the avoidant and anxious attachment styles are often expected to have a negative relation with empathy.

Because some studies presented two or more measures of empathy (e.g., cognitive and affective measures of the empathy), we also used the program to obtain anoverall effect size averaging the individual effect sizes.

We used The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA; Moher et al., 2009 ) criteria to select the studies for this meta-analysis. Two thousand five hundred nineteen ( n = 2119) papers about the topic were found through the database and one paper was found through other sources.

The eligibility criteria were the measuring instruments assessing attachment style with parents or in general, and assessing empathy, the association between both measures or data allowing to calculate effect size estimates.

The reasons for exclusion of the 79 full-text articles assessed for eligibility were: 1. The paper measured romantic or peer attachment (51.28%); 2. The paper did not study the relation between attachment style and empathy (16.67%); 3. The impossibility of obtaining the measures from the studies to calculate effect size estimates (11.54%); 4. The research was conducted on a specific group (8.97%); 5. It was a pre-post intervention in attachment (3.85%); 6. The age of the participants (3.85%); 7. The language of the published paper or abstract was not English or Spanish (1.28%); 8. It was only a review paper without empirical measures (1.28%); 8. The paper only measured disorganized attachment (1.28%). The Flow Diagrams obtained can be seen in Figures 1 and ​ and2 2 .

The relationship between secure attachment and empathy is presented before an examination of the relationship between two types of insecure attachments and empathy: avoidant attachment and anxious attachment.

3.1. Meta-Analytic Review of Relation between Secure Attachment and Empathy

Eleven thousand five hundred forty-two participants (N=11542) were included in the meta-analytic review that studied the relations between secure attachment and empathy. The effect sizes found in this study wasr=.23(95% CI = .22, .25,Z-value = 25.03,p≤.001) for fix model and r=.22for random model (95% CI = .21, .28,Z-value = 5.94,p≤.001). Concerning Heterogeneity of studies included in this meta-analytic review was significant (I2=90.27%,Q-value=133.66, df = 13,p≤.001).The results of the Forest plot and the Funnel plot are presented in Figures 3 and ​ and4 4 .

3.2. Meta-Analytic Review of Relation between Avoidant Attachment and Empathy

Three thousand one hundred and fifteen participants(N= 3115) were included in the meta-analytic reviewthat studied the relations between avoidant attachment and empathy. The effect sizes found in this study wasr=−.23(95% CI =−.26,−.19,Z-value =−12.89,p≤.001) for fix model an dr=−.22for random model(95% CI =−.39,−.02,Z-value =−2.17,p=.03). The heterogeneity of studies included in this meta-analytic review was significant (I2= 96.44%,Q-value = 168.47,df = 6,p≤.001). The results of the Forest plot and the Funnel plot are presented in Figures 5 and ​ and6 6 .

3.3. Meta-Analytic Review of Relation between Anxious Attachment and Empathy

Three thousand four hundred and seventy-nine participants (N= 3479) were included in the meta-analytic re-view that studied the relations between anxious attachment and empathy. The effect sizes found in this study was r=−.08(95% CI =−.12,−.05,Z-value =−4.82, p≤.001) for fix model and r=−.11for random model (95% CI =−.27,.06,Z-value =−1.27,p=.021). The heterogeneity of studies included in the meta-analytic review was significant (I2= 95.59%,Q-value = 158.79,df = 7,p=<.001). The results of the Forest plot and the Funnel plot are presented in Figures 7 and ​ and8 8 .

4. Discussion

Because attachment style and empathy are two essential processes in the healthy development of children and adolescents, and are reflected in the social behavior during adult life, the main purpose of this study was to contribute with the clarification of the relationship between secure and insecure attachments and empathy. It is important to notice that the different dimensions of empathy and the gender of individuals are factors that have been proven to have an impact on the relation between attachment style and empathy itself. However, as it was established before, these factors were not considered for this meta-analytic review, due to lack of enough studies which included this information and their relationship with the subject hereby discussed, or because there were not enough studies that included such information and the data needed for our statistical procedure.

The results of this meta-analytic study found, as we expected, a moderated and positive relation among secure attachment and empathy, which confirms the previous findings in the literature ( Delhaye et al., 2013 ; Khodabakhsh, 2012 ; Laible et al., 2004 ; Mikulincer et al., 2001 ; Murphy et al., 2015 ; Panfile & Laible, 2012 ). The secure attachment, characterized by a caregiver potentially available, supportive and worthy of acceptance ( Bartholomew & Horowitz, 1991 ), is a stable base to develop a strong capacity to empathize with others. Our results reinforce the idea of a consistent caregiving to develop secure attachment relationships that can allow children and adolescents to securely explore the environment and generate an atmosphere where social skills and empathy can be promoted. Indeed, the security experienced and learned during childhood, and recalled during the adolescence, become in the solid foundation to establish good relationships with others during different life stages. Moreover, Khodabakhsh (2012) indicated individuals with a secure attachment style develop a sense of trust with their caregivers, who respond empathically and therefore children and adolescents imitate that capacity to respond emotionally and empathically in later relationships. In this sense, the empathy of the caregiver acts as a model for them. Furthermore, it is probable that the security and availability provided by caregivers allows children and adolescents learning to explore without fear the emotions and point of view of others, facilitating the emotional and cognitive empathic process. Furthermore, children and adolescents that perceive that they have had a secure attachment with their caregiver, have the emotional stability needed to cope with others’ negative emotions or suffering without experiencing an excessive personal distress.

As we have argued in the introduction, when the relationship of insecure attachment and empathy is studied, ambivalent empirical results are obtained. Consequently, a meta-analytical review was needed in order to distinguish the characteristics of these relationships.

Our results indicated that there is a negative relation between avoidant style of attachment and empathy. As Gross and colleagues argued, the negative relation between avoidant attachment and empathy can be explained by the internal cognitive representations (2017).

The avoidant attachment is characterized by a negative representation of the others, so this could prevent the child from being empathetic because he/she considers others as unworthy of care, or because the other could be perceived as a threat to his/her own safety. Children and adolescents that experience an avoidant attachment with their caregiver want to protect themselves and others, and this is achieved by avoiding proximity and maintaining a sense of invulnerability through independence, which leads to a lack of empathy for others. Moreover, children and adolescents that experience avoidant attachment with their caregiver can present behavioral problems due to the high physiological activation and distress, and a lack of social expressiveness and skills, which, as a result, ends in a lack of empathy ( Khodabakhsh, 2012 ).

Concerning anxious-ambivalent attachment style, our meta-analytic study is not conclusive. We found a negative and small correlation between the anxious-ambivalent attachment style with empathy under the fixed effect model; however, this effect disappeared under the random-effects model. Borenstein and colleagues (2010) indicate the fixed-effect model attributes more weight to large sample studies, while using random-effects model, small studies gain influence. This finding supports the idea that anxious-ambivalent attachment style may be independent of the empathic process when focused on random-effects model. The ambivalence that is present in this attachment style may produce erratic and unpredictable behaviors. Individuals presenting an anxious ambivalent attachment style may have a duality on their behavior that can account for the inconsistencies mentioned before, going from high to low levels of empathy. In that sense, the inconsistencies on the findings for this attachment style may be attributed to the different dimensions of the empathy factor. In that sense, anxious-ambivalent individuals may portray high levels of empathy, because they needed to develop this characteristic due to their concern with pleasing others and to cope with their anxiety in this way. Conversely, anxious ambivalent individuals can also present low levels of empathy, because of an inherent disinterest to empathize with others due to the huge amount of anxiety they experience, which leads to being excessively focused on selfnecessities rather than the necessities of others. Moreover, the fear of being abandoned by attachment figures in anxious-ambivalent attachment reinforces their disinterest to empathize with others.

4.1. Strengths

As for the strengths of this research, it could be argued that, as a meta-analytic review, it followed a clear procedure in terms of search strategies, delimitation of the scope, inclusion/exclusion criteria, and statistical procedure. It also adds value to research about the measurement of the relationship between attachment styles and empathy by not being limited to a sample of individuals, which could add a bias in the measurement. Instead, the study hereby presented took into account several previous studies (2119 papers at the beginning) that were carefully filtered based on specific eligibility criteria. Thus, rendering a significant population of: (a) Eleven thousand five hundred forty-two participants ( N = 11542) for relations between secure attachment and empathy; (b) three thousand one hundred and fifteen participants ( N = 3115) for relations between avoidant attachment and empathy; and (c) three thousand four hundred and seventy-nine participants ( N = 3479) for relations between anxious attachment and empathy.

Another of the strengths is that, by means of the meta-analytic review performed, it was possible to accomplish the main goal set from the start and measure the relationship between attachment styles and empathy, with the following results: (i) it was possible to observe a moderated positive relationship between empathy and the secure attachment style; (ii) it was possible to identify a negative relation between avoidant attachment and empathy; and (iii) though it was not possible to find a definite relation between the anxious attachment style and empathy, this could be explained by high levels of empathic concern (justifying the positive relation reported), but also with high levels of personal distress/low empathy (justifying the negative relation).

4.2. Limitations

One of the limitations of this study was the impossibility to analyze the relationship between attachment type and the different dimensions of empathy (cognitive and emotional), due to the lack of enough studies. Another limitation was that the relationship between attachment and empathy in specific samples should be also analyzed such as convicts, autism, etc. A significant limitation was the different attachment classifications and instruments, and the wide age range of the participants in the studies made it very difficult to compare them. Finally, the results can be limited to some cultures and countries, due to most of the studies being carried out in Asia and North America. There were little studies in other cultures, such as Latin America or Africa. Attachment style may vary from culture to culture; therefore, further studies are needed to expand these results.

Since the wide variety of attachment measures and classifications could not be merged into single types of attachment, it was decided to conduct this research taking into account only those self-report instruments related to parent or general attachment in late childhood, young adolescents, and adults. This implies that the findings in the study can only be applied to this population and attachment classification.

4.3. Implications and Future Directions

Future research will be strengthened and refined through the inclusion of observational measures during infancy. Also, for future studies, ways to include the multidirectional nature of empathy and gender as part of the study on the relations of attachment styles and empathy must be considered. Moreover, it could be interesting to study the relationship between empathy and maternal-paternal attachment separately in the future, because attachment style can vary between parents. Furthermore, the relationship between attachment and empathy from a romantic or peer perspective, during adolescence and adulthood, should be studied in future research to compare the stability of attachment patterns across the lifespan. Studies such as this one are very important in the area of psychological research and that is the reason to suggest more future studies that include more parameters (some of which were left out because of the scope and available data for our study). This, in order to better understand the relationship between such important variables and to better design trainings of empathy tailored on attachment styles.

5. Conclusion

To summarize, this meta-analytic review synthetizes the association between secure, ambivalent, and avoidant attachment styles and empathy during late childhood, adolescence and adulthood, considering self-reported instruments and attachment to parents. It was found a moderated and positive relation among secure attachment and empathy, a negative correlation with avoidant attachment and empathy and a lack of association between ambivalent attachment and empathy. These results are in accordance with a previous meta-analysis by Li et al. (2021) , performed in childhood and adolescents, which would lead to the conclusion of a stability of the relationship between attachment and empathy during adulthood too.

Moreover, these findings may be the basis for future empirical research or other meta-analytic reviews on the relationship between empathy and attachment styles that include more dimensions and variables to delve deeper into the subject. For future research, it could be considered to include aspects such as: (a) including all ages (late adulthood included); (b) adding algorithms that could account for the distinct dimensions of empathy (to avoid considering as a single construct within the statistical analysis); (c) adding the variable of gender; (d) including other manifestations of attachment such as romantic relationships, or peer relationships, which would lead to a deeper understanding of the link between attachment and empathy.

Conflict of interests: The authors have declared that there is no conflict of interest.

** How to Cite: De Sanctis, F. & Mesurado, B. (2022). Attachment Style and Empathy in Late children, Adolescents, and Adults: Metaanalytic Review. International Journal of Psychologycal Research, 15 (2), 114-129. https://doi.org/10.21500/20112084.5409

Declaration of data availability

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The Macroeconomic Impact of Climate Change: Global vs. Local Temperature

This paper estimates that the macroeconomic damages from climate change are six times larger than previously thought. We exploit natural variability in global temperature and rely on time-series variation. A 1°C increase in global temperature leads to a 12% decline in world GDP. Global temperature shocks correlate much more strongly with extreme climatic events than the country-level temperature shocks commonly used in the panel literature, explaining why our estimate is substantially larger. We use our reduced-form evidence to estimate structural damage functions in a standard neoclassical growth model. Our results imply a Social Cost of Carbon of $1,056 per ton of carbon dioxide. A business-as-usual warming scenario leads to a present value welfare loss of 31%. Both are multiple orders of magnitude above previous estimates and imply that unilateral decarbonization policy is cost-effective for large countries such as the United States.

Adrien Bilal gratefully acknowledges support from the Chae Family Economics Research Fund at Harvard University. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

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