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Effects of Attachment Quality and Organization

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Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

Definition

John Bowlby argued that attachment, beyond the main biological function of increasing infants’ chances of survival, is important for psychological development. A robust association has subsequently been established between children’s attachment quality/organization and psychological development, particularly as regards socio-emotional functioning (e.g., internalizing and externalizing behavior problems, social competence), with secure attachment linked to favorable development and insecure attachment to increased risk for suboptimal development. Important research questions pertain to the factors that mediate (e.g., internal working models, emotion regulation, executive functioning) and moderate (e.g., attachment quality to other adults, child temperament, factors related to social context) the relation between attachment quality and subsequent development. Another question is whether variations in attachment quality are specifically important for particular aspects of...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

    Tommie Forslund

  2. Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

    Pehr Granqvist

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  1. Tommie Forslund
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  2. Pehr Granqvist
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Correspondence to Tommie Forslund .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

  2. Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Psychological Sciences, Kansas State University, 492 Bluemont Hall, Manhattan, KS, USA

    Gary L Brase

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Forslund, T., Granqvist, P. (2017). Effects of Attachment Quality and Organization. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1964-1

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