Application of Bowlby-Ainsworth Attachment Theory and Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory
In the opinion of Londoño, De Soria and Rivas (2019), family in the cultural context play a major role in childhood development. The relationship shared with the family and society members influences developments through attracting several opportunities and risks for the present regard. The present study aims to reflect on own childhood development from the age of 4 to 12 by applying Bowlby-Ainsworth Attachment Theory and Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory. These theories will closely evaluate the relationships and their influence during child development. The impact of the situations on the personality after getting mature will be discussed entirely to attract a better understanding of the context. Further, the development concept of engaging attachment theory has been highlighted while evaluating personal experiences. Impacts of family relationships and social interaction have been presented throughout the study in the context of affecting childhood development. Several behavioural impacts, such as fear, and depression, have been analyzed by presenting examples from my childhood days. The influence of parent-child relationships in subsequent childhood development has been raised by the study highlighting real-life examples. The significance of the role of the mother is highlighted in case of emotional developments during childhood. The concepts of Microsystem, macrosystem, mesosystem, exosystem and chronosystem have been concentrated while performing the present study in relation to child development from the age of 4 to 12. The role of social institutions such as schools has been elaborated to understand the developmental impact of the schools on child development.
I had a good relationship with my family during my childhood. I used to be attached to my mother very closely. But the issue I faced during my early childhood was regarding the relationship with my father. My father was a short-tempered person and used to be anxious and stressed all the time due to extreme work pressure. I used to get upset due to the stressful behaviour of my father toward my mother and me. This scenario influenced me to be an introvert in social scenarios (Karageorghis et al., 2021). I used to get afraid of talking to people, even on the social scene. It had further created low self-esteem in me during that period which affected my psychological development (Branden, 2021). Lack of self-confidence due to the scenario further engaged social loneliness during my childhood (?skender, 2018). As described by Salcuni (2015), the parent-child relationship influences the subsequent development of a child. Further, the class modules regarding attachment theory described the same, and it is also evaluated by me through my personal experiences (Salcuni, 2015). My social interaction was negatively affected by the scenario, causing introverted nature even during my mature age. Due to my introverted nature, I, at a mature age, still face little difficulties in making friends or initiating any new relationships (Apostolou & Keramari, 2020). Further, I had developed a commitment phobia that is influencing my present lifestyle in terms of initiating serious relations. I have observed myself to prefer people who talk in a nicer way but are not so reliable in nature. But I have the tendency to trust them due to their nice behavioural approach. As per my evaluation, this is because of my emotional support seeking nature that I trust anyone who treats me in a better way. But this is causing several wrong choices in my life, even at my mature age. In my opinion, it negatively affected my mental health (Ae-Ngibise et al., 2015). I also faced difficulties with interacting with my friends in school as I have developed a fear of interacting with people. Mesosystem, according to the ecological theory, was negatively affected due to the present scenario. As elaborated by Charles (2021), the mesosystem influences child development in terms of engaging in social interactions. As the mesosystem was affected, I faced difficulties creating social interaction with my teachers in the school as well. This scenario further negatively affected my academic development by engaging in low academic performance due to the lack of communication with the teachers. In elaborating on the concept of the Microsystem in the ecological theory through my personal experiences, it can be said that my social interaction was interrupted during my primary education due to the issues with my father during the initial period (Charles, 2021). Further, I was unwilling to attend school on a regular basis due to the affected interrelationships with my peer groups and teachers from the age of 4 to 12. I used to cry a lot for not attending school. As mentioned in the modules, this situation was created due to the stress in my family. My mother used to take me to the park, which influenced my development positively during childhood. As explained in the module, it has developed the exosystem that indirectly influenced me toward a better development process. As opined by Charles (2021), Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological theory engages a chronosystem that contributes to the adoption and development of different ideologies. At the age of 6 years, my father lost his job, and for the next three months, he was unemployed. This scenario has affected me during my childhood. But this situation attracted advantages for me in terms of growing adaptability in a different crisis situation. In my mature age, due to the reflected scenario, I am able to engage less stress in different difficult situations. I further involve myself to seek solutions instead of overthinking the problematic scenario whenever a problem arises in my life. The above-mentioned scenario has risen due to the influence of the interaction with my family, peers and teachers during my early childhood age.
Evaluation of family relationships and the role of mother
According to Page (2015), the mother-child relationship, in Bowlby’s opinion, has an influence on the emotional development of a child in terms of emotional stability. From the initial days of my childhood, I have shared a very close relationship with my mother. She has always been the source of my emotional support throughout my entire childhood developmental stages. In the vision of Ein-Dor and Hirschberger (2016), attachment to the parents during early childhood influences the emotional stability of the person at a mature age. Close attachment with my mother further resulted in an enhanced ability to adapt to different situations easily (Salcuni, 2015). But in this regard, I faced a major issue due to my emotional misbalance. As I was experiencing several social interaction issues with my father, teachers and peers, I was really insecure about my mother. After returning from school, I always expected to see her waiting for me, but in any case, if she could not be there with me, I used to get frustrated. During this period, I had grown destructive personality and used to break things or shout loudly without any reason. This scenario has attracted due to the parent-child relationship issues described in the Attachment theory (Salcuni, 2015). My emotional instability has been grown during that period of time, and further, I am carrying the disadvantages of the situation to this date. As described in the module, the present attachment theory contradicts the dominant behavioural theory that accepts bonds between mother and child based on feeding (Salcuni, 2015). But due to some physical issues during my infancy, I was restricted from being fed by my mother after the 6th month of my birth and instead, I used to consume milk substitutes. Thus, as per my viewpoint, I have a close bond with my mother even without consuming breast milk for long. In spite of having a close attachment with my mother, I faced several survival issues like disrupting social relationships and trust issues due to the negative impact of an insecure relationship with my father during my early childhood. Further, the concepts derived from the Bowlby-Ainsworth Attachment Theory and Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory that is reflected through my childhood development stages has further affected me. In the opinion of Djafarova and Rushworth (2017), low self-confidence influences decision-making ability in a negative way. I have observed poor decision-making capacity in me due to my low self-confidence and low self-esteem since my childhood days. As we all know that the major developmental attributes in every domain of a person occur during my childhood days, and it has affected my personality development.
At the age of 10, I was identified with minor depression symptoms by my class teacher. I used to sit isolated from the entire class during my primary school and further used to look lost and inattentive in the class. The teacher noticed this matter and further tried to talk to me. But as I was afraid to make conversations, I was not attending school for the next two days after the teacher asked me to talk to her. Even I have lied to my family and acted sick to avoid school. After that, the teacher called my mother for a meeting where my mother was informed about my developmental issues in terms of social development, emotional development and psychological development. During the conversation with the teacher, my mother highlighted the family issues that have been occurred in our family. After listening to the entire scenario, my mother was suggested to take me for psychological counselling. The therapist asked our family to participate in family therapy, where my father was also played a significant role. I observed a major change in his behaviour after initiating the counselling to encourage my childhood development. Then, with psychological assistance and care, I was raised from the situation, and further, it is observed that the social and psychological developments are taking place slowly and gradually.
Impact of social institutions such as schools on child development
According to Fraley and Shaver (2021), attachment theory offers consistency in behavioural development in the case of changing human experiences. As it is elaborated before, the school I was attending was very supportive enough to bring my childhood developments on the correct track. The teachers cared for me and further helped me to socialize in the school environment. Later on, I made friends in my schools that were also very supportive. This supportive school environment encouraged me to continue a proper childhood development to adjust to a normal social scenario (Londoño, De Soria & Rivas, 2019). As I was an introvert in school, the teachers and my peers used to take me for taking active parts in sports and exercise. This scenario further helped me to perform proper physical development during my late childhood period (Londoño, De Soria & Rivas, 2019). It was further growing my skills related to social interaction that further attracted and advantaged me in social development. The close attachments with the teachers and friends further motivated me toward participating in different activities like quizzes, brainstorming, and so on, which has further helped me in my intellectual development during my childhood days. The enhanced social skills during the age of 11 to 12 further encouraged me in terms of social, psychological and emotional development. Further, my social development was empowered by my teachers during that period by engaging me in different activities like tree plantings, competitions, sports, annual functions, excursions and so on.
In conclusion, it can be said that I suffered from several personal, social, psychological and emotional issues during my early childhood. These scenarios are further reflected and analysed to be development, emotional development and psychological development. A stressful home environment has been further interpreted to be a major factor behind the social and psychological development restricting factors while concentrating on the child development. It is further analysed that the stressful office life of my father negatively affected my childhood development in terms of academic development social during my childhood days. As I was afraid of social interaction, it has affected my social life as well. Further, it is analysed that close attachment with my mother strengthens my abilities to cope with different situations. Apart from that, initial psychological care during childhood development has been proved as a major contributor to childhood personality development. The role of the school and teachers has been analysed to encourage child development in the present context by highlighting my childhood example. The application of Bowlby-Ainsworth Attachment Theory and Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory has been analysed in terms of encouraging childhood developments. The concepts of the theories such as attachments with family and social interactions have been critically evaluated by presenting my childhood example, focusing on several risks and advantages of the factors in boosting better childhood development.
References
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