Attachment Style, Temperament, and Emotional Regulation
Early childhood is a developmental stage that mostly starts from the age of 3 to 6/7 years. During this stage, the attention span of children develops, physical changes are experienced, and there are also a host of other skills developed in the process. Attachment style, temperament, and emotional regulation serve as some of the most imperative aspects that define early childhood life and play a significant role in shaping the later life of a child. Parents are therefore required to pay close attention to children in early childhood in respect to these behavioral traits as the traits serve as early determinants of mental health. According to Pierrehumbert et al. (2015), the attachment is based on the child’s interpersonal experience with the caregiver. The quality of attachment has been found to serve as a predictive validity for later social as well as emotional and at some instances even cognitive development. Security of attachment is basically associated with favorable social and cognitive development. Various studies have equally envisaged poor attachment as a probable consequence of psychopathology. In the case of anxious attachment, it translates to the likelihood of low self-confidence.
On the other hand, temperament is evaluated basically based on three major qualities of reactivity, self-regulation, and sociability. Reactivity refers to the manner a child reacts to things such as exciting events. Self-regulation involves the manner a child can control behavior, including showing feelings (Ahmetoglu et al., 2018). Lastly, sociability refers to the comfort level of a child after having new experiences or meeting new people. In the case where a child demonstrates less temperament, there is a high possibility that the child is less assertive, which may later translate to poor cognitive and social skills later in life. Lastly, emotional regulation is attributed by Ahmetoglu et al. (2018) as the manner in which a child controls emotive situations. Emotional regulation further entails the ability of a child to deal with stressful situations. Social-emotional skills of a child serve in laying the foundation for later development of self-concept as well as social relationships. Poor emotional control like it is the case with attachment and temperament, poor emotional control is associated with psychopathology.
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Observation
Observation of children in early childhood development stage serves in allowing a naturalistic insight towards understanding a child’s developmental process, which may be not captured by experimental methods. My observation was done with a boy aged three years and nine months by the name of Chris. My observation took place at Chris’s house, who is my immediate neighbor. The decision to pick on Chris was influenced by two critical factors. First, we are family friends with Chris parents and secondly, Chris is fond of me signifying that my presence in their house would not influence a change of behavior as a result of fear or intimidation. The day I conducted my observation happened to be on a weekend, therefore, his parents and elder siblings were in the house. My observation took around one hour as I started at 11:30 A.M and ended at 12:30 P.M. During my observation process, I tried to restrict myself on things that I would associate with the development process. Firstly, I realized that Chris had very may toys that he played with and even disconnected some. Any form of disruption especially from his siblings was met with an angry reaction. At most instances, he would slap or shout at his siblings who disrupted his things. However, a similar reaction was not directed to his parents. He turned to his father to request him to put cartoons channel at around 12 noon. As his mother prepared food in the kitchen, in the course of the one hour I carried my observation, Chris had gone to the kitchen thrice. At the first instance, he came back with a cup of milk, the second instance he came eating raw sliced tomatoes, and in the third instance, he came back to the sitting room happy and shouting that beef was almost ready. Another thing I realized is that Chris talked too much and wanted others to listen when he communicated.
Observation in Enhancing Understanding
My observation to a significant level helped in affirming my previous knowledge about behaviors of children in early childhood development. This is specifically in regard to children without attachment and temperament problems. The fact that Chris had a close relationship with both of his parents revealed that he was not afraid of them. Again, although the boy played with his toys alone, playing is one of the primary determinants of social interactions. Considering that he would often take a toy to one of his elder siblings, it is a clear indication that he loved co-operative play. The only issue I had with Chris is managing his emotions; he seemed very annoyed whenever interrupted by his siblings in his undertakings. Since the same reaction was never experienced whenever disrupted by his parents, I assumed that it was basically because his siblings were in the middle childhood age, and thus he perceived them as children too. Generally, my observation fitted early childhood development theories of attachment, temperament, and emotional regulation. In respect to attachment, the boy had a close attachment with his parents and siblings. On the issue of temperament, the boy was more reactive as evidenced by the joy he displayed when he realized that beef was almost ready. Reaction to emotions was a little bit awkward, but it is possible to correct such through parent intervention.
References
Ahmetoglu, E., Ilhan Ildiz, G., Acar, I. H., & Encinger, A. (2018). Children's Emotion Regulation and Attachment to Parents: Parental Emotion Socialization as a Moderator. Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal , 46 (6), 969-984. doi:10.2224/sbp.6795. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1159&context=famconfacpub
Pierrehumbert, B., Miljkovitch, R., Plancherel, B., Halfon, O., & Ansermet, F. (2015). Attachment and temperament in early childhood; implications for later behavior problems. Infant and Child Development , 9 (1), 17-32. doi:10.1002/(sici)1522-7219(200003)9:1<17::aid-icd212>3.0.co;2-#. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283509944_Attachment_and_Temperament_in_Early_Childhood_Implications_for_Later_Behavior_Problems_Infant_Child_Development
