The holiday season is upon us! For those of us preparing to spend time with loved ones this month, let’s consider how our bonds with them were formed in the first place. The field of psychology has long established that people develop certain ways of relating to others, especially significant people, in their lives. These ways of relating are known as “attachment styles”.
History of Attachment Theory
In the 1950s, a British psychologist named Henry Bowlby began observing two children under his care in a psychiatric hospital. One child seemed to be emotionless when interacting with Bowlby, while the other seemed to follow him around everywhere. From this experience, Bowlby formulated a hypothesis that children tend to fall on a spectrum between what he termed “secure” “anxious” and “avoidant” attachment styles.
Secure attachment means a child is able to quickly adjust to the parent’s absence and also enjoys the parent being around. Anxiously attached children tend to be clingier and have a harder time with separation from their caregivers. They are also difficult to soothe even after the caregiver returns. Avoidantly attached children don’t outwardly show emotion when the caregiver leaves, and they ignore the caregiver upon return. However, heart rate monitor measurements have indicated that avoidantly-attached children actually have higher heart rates than anxiously attached children when separated from their caregiver.
Another psychologist named Mary Ainsworth expanded on Bowlby’s theory when she created a psychological experiment termed “The Strange Situation”. This experiment sought to identify how one-year-old infants tended to respond when placed in an unfamiliar setting while their mother alternately left the environment and then returned to it. Ainsworth noted an additional attachment style that emerged from this study: “disorganized” attachment. Disorganized attachment meant the child showed conflicting behaviors, such as smiling and then hitting the mother, or walking toward and then backing away from the mother. Ainsworth ascertained the conflicting behaviors were an outward expression of the child feeling afraid of and yet needing the parent’s presence.
What Attachment Styles Do Children of Inmates Have?
According to a 2005 study conducted by Poehlmann et. al., 66% of children of inmates were found to have an insecure (ambivalent, avoidant or disorganized) attachment with their incarcerated mother. Similarly, a study by Venema et al. (2021) found that 59% of children of inmates negatively viewed their relationship with their incarcerated father. This was in contrast to 51% of children in the general population who felt securely attached, versus 49% who felt some form of insecure attachment (Madigan et al., 2023).
How does music therapy help Sparks’ students with attachment?
Although not a primary focus of Sparks for Success’ music therapy program, the therapy setting can often facilitate secure attachment through consistency and predictability.
For example, students are picked up from their classrooms at the same time each week. They enter the classroom where therapy is happening and the therapist greets them with the same enthusiasm. There is an opening and a closing song that stay the same, and the therapy session typically lasts the same length of time each week. The same limits and expectations are enforced for student behavior. These similarities help students know what to expect, which helps them feel safer.
When Sparks’ students feel safe, they become more free to explore their environment. This facilitates learning and growth, which is the ultimate expression of secure attachment!
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