Parental Attachment Styles and Their Impact on Cognitive and Emotional Development in Early Childhood

Abstract

Study demonstrates that attachment between parents and children strongly influences how both cognitive and emotional development of children evolves during their early stages of growth. Current research about the connection between attachment security and emotional development and cognitive abilities remains obscure when studying low-income Pakistani communities. The purpose of this research is to understand the connection between how attachment to parents impacts child cognitive development and emotional development with an analysis of gender and socioeconomic variations. This cross-sectional investigation involved 300 parents who participated equally from Dera Ghazi Khan, Bahawalnagar, Larkana and Mardan. The research participants used self-reported questionnaires to analyze their degrees of parental attachment as well as their cognitive development and emotional development. The research team executed the statistical tests starting with Pearson’s correlation followed by independent sample t-test and ANOVA to study the relationships between variables. Research outcomes demonstrated that parental attachment created positive effects on both cognitive development (r = 0.42, p < 0.01) and emotional development (r = 0.51, p < 0.01). Female participants demonstrated stronger attachment levels compared to male participants as indicated by the analysis (p = 0.034). Middle-income parents demonstrated stronger attachment scores than participants in the lower socioeconomic level (p = 0.012). The research results indicate that parental attachment plays an essential part in early development thus parental training should focus on developing secure attachment relationships. Intervention efforts need to target low-income families because their economic constraints create risk factors which harm the connections between parents and children. The effect of attachment on child development throughout time needs assessment through longitudinal research approaches.