John Bowlby's Attachment Theory

After the Second World War, many children across Europe had lost their parents or their homes. The World Health Organization commissioned British psychiatrist and psychoanalyst John Bowlby to report on the mental health of homeless children, including those living in institutions. His 1951 report, Maternal Care and Mental Health, argued that young children need a warm, close and continuous relationship with a main caregiver.

The report helped lay the groundwork for attachment theory, which Bowlby developed further during the 1950s and in his later writing. It remains an influential theory of child development, although some of his early claims have since been revised.

Bowlby's early life and career

Bowlby was born in London in 1907 and died in 1990. He grew up in an upper-middle-class family and was cared for largely by a nanny, who left when he was around four. He went to boarding school at seven and later described these experiences as difficult. After studying at Trinity College, Cambridge, he worked with children experiencing emotional and behavioural difficulties, then trained in medicine, psychiatry and psychoanalysis. He spent much of his career at the Tavistock Clinic in London.

His study Forty-four Juvenile Thieves: Their Characters and Home-Life (1944) looked at young people referred to a child guidance clinic. Many of those who showed little guilt or emotional connection had experienced long separations from their mother in early childhood. This was a small study based on the children's past histories, however. It could not show that separation itself caused these difficulties, and other family circumstances may also have contributed.

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Bowlby's main ideas

Bowlby believed babies are born with a drive to stay close to a caregiver, because in evolutionary terms this kept them safe. His influential ideas, some of which have since been revised or challenged, include:

• A secure base: a child who feels safe with their caregiver feels confident to explore, knowing they can return for comfort.
• Monotropy: Bowlby thought one main attachment, usually to the mother, matters more than any other.
• A sensitive period: Bowlby placed particular importance on early childhood. Later research shows early experiences matter, but there is no fixed deadline after which children cannot form secure attachments.
• Internal working model: early relationships give a child a template for what to expect from others and how they see themselves.
• Maternal deprivation: he argued that long or repeated separation from the main caregiver could lead to later emotional and behavioural difficulties. Separation alone does not necessarily cause harm, though. The child's circumstances and the quality and continuity of care matter.

With social worker James Robertson, Bowlby described protest, despair and apparent detachment in some young children experiencing prolonged separation. These are not stages every child goes through when starting nursery. Robertson's films, along with the 1959 Platt Report, helped change attitudes and hospital practice around separating children from their parents. Parents are now generally encouraged to be involved in their child's hospital care, although visiting and overnight arrangements vary.

Bowlby set out his ideas in full in the three-volume series Attachment and Loss, published between 1969 and 1980.

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How the theory has developed and been challenged

Mary Ainsworth, who worked with Bowlby, developed the Strange Situation, a structured observation usually used with infants aged around 12 to 18 months. She examined how children explored and responded to brief separations and reunions with their caregiver, and described secure, avoidant and resistant attachment. Mary Main and Judith Solomon later identified disorganised attachment.

These patterns describe a particular relationship rather than a fixed personality type, and a child may show different patterns with different caregivers. Insecure attachment is also not the same as an attachment disorder, which needs specialist assessment.

Other parts of Bowlby's thinking have been questioned:

• Rudolph Schaffer and Peggy Emerson found that many babies form strong bonds with several people, not just one.
• Psychiatrist Michael Rutter distinguished between disruption of an existing attachment and a lack of opportunity to form one, and highlighted care quality and other adversities.
• Children can form secure relationships later, for example after adoption.
• Fathers, grandparents, foster carers and other adults can all be main attachment figures.
• Caregiving customs differ between cultures, which affects how attachment behaviour should be interpreted.

What it means for families today

Research continues to support the importance of sensitive, consistent caregiving. Using childcare does not, in itself, prevent a child developing secure attachments. Care does not need to be perfect either. Every caregiver sometimes misreads a child's signals, and reconnecting and responding over time is what counts.

Crying at nursery drop-off, clinginess or one difficult reunion do not reveal a child's attachment pattern. Pressures such as parental mental ill health, trauma, poverty or limited support can make relationships harder, and needing help is not a failing.

In England, the Early Years Foundation Stage requires each child in a nursery or with a childminder to have a key person, an approach that reflects Bowlby's influence. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own early years frameworks. NICE guidance on attachment difficulties focuses specifically on children in care, adopted from care or at risk of entering care.

If you are concerned about your child's emotional development or your relationship with them, your health visitor or GP is a good first step. The NHS website has guidance on bonding with your baby, and Family Lives, the NSPCC and the Anna Freud Centre offer information and support. For adoption or fostering questions, contact your local council and check that any GOV.UK guidance covers your part of the UK.

The Next Step

Now that you have read through the advice above, you might want to put it into practice. Our Mahler Stages of Development Checker lets you find out which of Margaret Mahler's stages of separation-individuation your child is in. Enter their age and the behaviour you are seeing and get a clear explanation of what is happening developmentally and how to support them. Try it now →