Relationship building between toddlers and new caregivers

3 important questions on Relationship building between toddlers and new caregivers

What did the introduction say about the relationship building between toddlers and new caregivers in out-of-home attachment

It is a cause for concern that insecure attachments to care providers have been found to be more common in the context of childcare than in parent-child relationships.
The level of attachment security children develop with their caregivers in childcare has been shown to be related to the child’s gender, with girls developing more secure attachment relationships than boys. Childcare quality is also more strongly related to social and behavioural outcomes in boys than in girls. Little is known about the mechanisms driving this difference.

What is discussion in this study

We have replicated the finding of Ahnert et al.’s (2006) meta-analysis that (1) attachment security with care-givers in childcare is relatively low (and didn’t increase during the first four months), (2) girls are more securely attached to their care providers than boys, and (3) group-related, rather than dyadic (one-on-one) sensitivity predicted attachment security.


- This study does not produce clear evidence that differences in attachment security between genders can be explained by experiences with caregivers, or the different ways in which these experiences influence toddlers’ relationship security.

What is a possible explanation for low attachment with caregiver

- group dynamics in childcare may be more unstable, especially during a period when many children in the group are settling into the new environment at the same time.

The question on the page originate from the summary of the following study material:

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