Editing Attachment theory (section)

==Changes in attachment during childhood and adolescence==
Childhood and adolescence allows the development of an internal working model useful for forming attachments. This internal working model is related to the individual's state of mind which develops with respect to attachment generally and explores how attachment functions in relationship dynamics based on childhood and adolescent experience. The organization of an internal working model is generally seen as leading to more stable attachments in those who develop such a model, rather than those who rely more on the individual's state of mind alone in forming new attachments.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Main |first1=Mary |last2=Kaplan |first2=Nancy |last3=Cassidy |first3=Jude |title=Security in Infancy, Childhood, and Adulthood: A Move to the Level of Representation |journal=Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development |date=1985 |volume=50 |issue=1/2 |pages=66–104 |doi=10.2307/3333827|jstor=3333827 }}</ref>

Age, cognitive growth, and continued social experience advance the development and complexity of the internal working model. Attachment-related behaviours lose some characteristics typical of the infant-toddler period and take on age-related tendencies. The preschool period involves the use of negotiation and bargaining.<ref name="Waters">{{cite journal |vauthors=Waters E, Kondo-Ikemura K, Posada G, Richters J |year=1991 |title=Learning to love: Mechanisms and milestones |journal=Minnesota Symposia on Child Psychology |location=Hillsdale, NJ |publisher=Erlbaum |volume=23 |issue=Self–Processes and Development |veditors=Gunnar M, Sroufe T}}</ref> For example, four-year-olds are not distressed by separation if they and their caregiver have already negotiated a shared plan for the separation and reunion.<ref name="marbrit">{{cite encyclopedia |year=2008 |title=Normative Development: The Ontogeny of Attachment |encyclopedia=Handbook of Attachment: Theory, Research and Clinical Applications |publisher=Guilford Press |location=New York and London |pages=269–94 |isbn=978-1-59385-874-2 |vauthors=Marvin RS, Britner PA |veditors=Cassidy J, Shaver PR}}</ref>

Ideally, these social skills become incorporated into the internal working model to be used with other children and later with adult peers. As children move into the school years at about six years old, most develop a goal-corrected partnership with parents, in which each partner is willing to compromise in order to maintain a gratifying relationship.<ref name="Waters" /> By middle childhood, the goal of the attachment behavioural system has changed from proximity to the attachment figure to availability. Generally, a child is content with longer separations, provided contact—or the possibility of physically reuniting, if needed—is available. Attachment behaviours such as clinging and following decline and self-reliance increases. By middle childhood (ages 7–11), there may be a shift toward mutual [[coregulation]] of secure-base contact in which caregiver and child negotiate methods of maintaining communication and supervision as the child moves toward a greater degree of independence.<ref name="Waters" />

The attachment system used by adolescents is seen as a "safety regulating system" whose main function is to promote physical and psychological safety. There are 2 different events that can trigger the attachment system. Those triggers include, the presence of a potential danger or stress, internal and external, and a threat of accessibility and/or availability of an attachment figure. The ultimate goal of the attachment system is security, so during a time of danger or inaccessibility the behavioural system accepts felt security in the context of the availability of protection. By adolescence we are able to find security through a variety of things, such as food, exercise, and social media.<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Kerns | first1 = Kathryn A. | first2 = Rhonda A. | last2 = Richardson | title = Attachment in Middle Childhood. | publisher = Guilford Press | date = 2005 }}</ref> Felt security can be achieved through a number of ways, and often without the physical presence of the attachment figure. Higher levels of maturity allows adolescent teens to more capably interact with their environment on their own because the environment is perceived as less threatening. Adolescents teens will also see an increase in cognitive, emotional and behavioural maturity that dictates whether or not teens are less likely to experience conditions that activate their need for an attachment figure. For example, when teenagers get sick and stay home from school, surely they want their parents to be home so they can take care of them, but they are also able to stay home by themselves without experiencing serious amounts of distress.<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = McElhaney KB, Allen JP, Stephenson JC, Hare AL | chapter = Attachment and Autonomy During Adolescence | veditors = Lerner RM, Steinberg L | title = Part II: Domains of Individual Development in Adolescence | series = Handbook of Adolescent Psychology | publisher = Wiley-Blackwell | date = 30 October 2009 | doi = 10.1002/9780470479193.adlpsy001012 | isbn = 978-0-470-47919-3 }}</ref> Additionally, the social environment that a school fosters impacts adolescents attachment behaviour, even if these same adolescents have not had issues with attachment behaviour previously. High schools that have a permissive environment compared to an authoritative environment promote positive attachment behaviour. For example, when students feel connected to their teachers and peers because of their permissive schooling environment, they are less likely to skip school. Positive-attachment behaviour in high schools have important implications on how a school's environment should be structured.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Keppens |first1=Gil |last2=Spruyt |first2=Bram |date=November 2019 |title=The School as a Socialization Context: Understanding the Influence of School Bonding and an Authoritative School Climate on Class Skipping |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0044118X17722305 |journal=Youth & Society |language=en |volume=51 |issue=8 |pages=1145–1166 |doi=10.1177/0044118X17722305 |s2cid=149330059 |issn=0044-118X|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Here are the attachment style differences during adolescence:<ref name=":8">{{cite journal |last1=Freeman |first1=Harry |last2=Brown |first2=B. Bradford |date=2001 |title=Primary Attachment to Parents and Peers during Adolescence: Differences by Attachment Style |journal=Journal of Youth and Adolescence |language=en |volume=30 |issue=6 |pages=653–674 |doi=10.1023/A:1012200511045 |s2cid=35110543 |issn=0047-2891}}</ref>

* Secure adolescents are expected to hold their mothers at a higher rate than all other support figures, including father, significant others, and best friends.
* Insecure adolescents identify more strongly with their peers than their parents as their primary attachment figures. Their friends are seen as a significantly strong source of attachment support.
* Dismissing adolescents rate their parents as a less significant source of attachment support and would consider themselves as their primary attachment figure.
* Preoccupied adolescents would rate their parents as their primary source of attachment support and would consider themselves as a much less significant source of attachment support.<ref name=":8" />