Three signs that a person has insecure attachment include the inability to engage in intimacy, struggling to form healthy relationships with others, and unpredictable or inconsistent behavior with loved ones.
Examples of Insecure Attachment Behavior in Children
Actively avoiding parents/caregivers. Frequent bouts of inconsolable crying. Being overly clingy with parents/caregivers. Masking emotions.
Adolescents with insecure attachment to parents are more likely to engage in risky behaviours, present behavioural problems, and experience difficulties with emotional regulation, such as impulsivity [26,27,28].
Babies with an insecure-ambivalent/resistant attachment are clingy with their mother and don't explore or play in her presence. They are distressed when the mother leaves, and when she returns, they vacillate between clinging and angry resistance.
Infants with insecure/avoidant attachment fail to greet and/or approach, appear oblivious to their caregiver's return and remain focused on toys, essentially avoiding the caregiver, which occurs in 23% of the general population (9).
Known as disorganized attachment style in adulthood, the fearful avoidant attachment style is thought to be the most difficult. Sadly, this insecure attachment style is often seen in children that have experienced trauma or abuse.
The causes of your insecure attachment could include: Having a young or inexperienced mother, lacking in the necessary parenting skills. Your caregiver experienced depression caused by isolation, lack of social support, or hormonal problems, for example, forcing them to withdraw from the caregiving role.
Attachment insecurity can therefore be viewed as a general vulnerability to mental disorders, with the particular symptomatology depending on genetic, developmental, and environmental factors.
Avoidant, anxious, and disorganized are considered insecure attachment styles. If a child can consistently rely on their parents to fulfill their needs growing up, they're likely to develop a secure attachment style. They'll see relationships as a safe space where they can express their emotions freely.
Individuals with an anxious attachment style are characterized with: Being clingy. Having an intensely persistent and hypervigilant alertness towards their partner's actions or inactions.
Attachment trauma is painful, but healing is possible. It can be difficult to do on your own, but therapy, self-care, learning new ways to communicate, and connecting with yourself and others can be helpful.
There are several different types of therapy proven to support those experiencing insecure attachment, including family therapy, Gestalt therapy, cognitive therapy, and behavioral therapy. Each type can work effectively, depending on the individual presenting with the symptoms.
Some studies showed that differences in attachment styles seem to influence both the frequency and the patterns of jealousy expression: individuals with the preoccupied or fearful-avoidant attachment styles more often become jealous and consider rivals as more threatening than those with the secure attachment style [9, ...
Infants whose experiences with a caregiver are negative or unpredictable are more likely to develop an insecure attachment. Children who are insecurely attached have learned that adults are not reliable, and do not trust easily.
We first review basic principles of attachment theory and then discuss how two forms of attachment insecurity—anxiety and avoidance—are associated with unique patterns of emotion regulation in response to certain types of threatening/distressing situations.
Insecure avoidant attachment. Children who develop an 'avoidant' attachment pattern are thought to maintain proximity to their caregiver by 'down-regulating' their attachment behaviour: they appear to manage their own distress and do not strongly signal a need for comfort.
Researchers Philip Shaver and Cindy Hazan, who looked at adult relationships through the lens of childhood attachment styles, estimate that approximately 40 percent of people have an insecure attachment style of one type or another.