لخّصلي

This paper explores adult attachment styles, linking them to childhood experiences. Attachment, a crucial emotional bond formed between infant and caregiver, significantly impacts emotional and social development. Bowlby's attachment theory posits that timely and adequate responses to a child's needs foster secure attachment, leading to positive attitudes and a sense of safety. Conversely, inadequate or frightening responses create insecure attachment, resulting in feelings of insecurity and negativity. Four attachment patterns emerge: secure, anxious, avoidant, and disorganized. These early experiences shape adult relationships, influencing partner choice and emotional responses to separation. Avoidant adults, often self-reliant due to unmet childhood needs, may appear successful but isolated. Anxious adults, conversely, constantly seek reassurance due to inconsistent early care. Disorganized adults experience emotional instability and struggle with intimacy. This theoretical overview lays the groundwork for further research on adult attachment styles.

ATTACHMENT STYLES IN ADULT RELATIONSHIPS
Katica Stoimenovska Mantova
International Balkan University, Skopje, North Macedonia, [email protected]
Abstract: Attachment is a deep emotional relationship that is formed between primary caregiver, usually the mother
and the child in early childhood and lasts throughout life, as a permanent psychological bond established between
two people. It is an important strong bond for every child’s normal emotional and social development. Essentially, it
is thought that our adult attachment style mirrors the way our parents cared for us when we were infants and
children and its determinates our adult relationships, starting from who we choose as a partner to how our
relationships will end. According to the creator of attachment theory, Jon Bowlby, attachment is formed through the
way of how primary caregiver is dealing with the child, the way of responding or not responding to the child's needs
and signals. If the answers to the child’s needs are timely and adequate and the child shares strong emotional bond
with the caregiver, the child will develop a secure attachment that will make it have a positive attitude towards life
and develop a feeling of safety. If the answers to the child’s needs are inadequate, untimely, absent or even
frightening and the child shares week emotional bond with the caregiver, it will develop insecure attachment that
will make it fill insecure, negative, and have negative mind set throughout life. The attachment theory postulates that
forming a secure attachment helps child to develop a sense of security, by knowing that he has safe place to return to
and this child will become adult with a positive and confident attitude and with a feeling of independence about the
exploration of the world around him. Nonetheless, if the bonding attachments in the early stages of life are not firm,
there can be a feeling of uncertainty and the child may become anxious adult or with avoidant personality, or both;
this will block the trust in humanity and his environment, and it will become negative and reserved. Depending what
kind of care the child receives, there can be established four patterns of attachment: secure attachment, anxious
attachment, avoidant attachment, and disorganized attachment. All those patterns of attachment in childhood affects
the attachment style of the adult life, the way one form a love relationship, and the emotional response when a loved
person leaves. In this paper we theoretically explore the adult attachment styles aiming to summarize the knowledge
about their characteristics and relation to child attachment styles. We begin with summarizing exploration of the
development of attachment theory, then explore the relationship between early childhood attachment, and finally
recapitulate the four types of adult attachment to gain a clearer picture of their characteristics. This paper represents
theoretical background for the ongoing research on adult attachment styles.
Keywords: Attachment, attachment styles, secure attachment,

1. INTRODUCTION
   Attachment is emotional bond formed between an infant and a primary caregiver. It is a strong bond that is vital for
   the child’s normal emotional, behavioral and social development. Although parents have different and numerous
   roles in a child's life, the role of a of attachment figure is considered the most important parental role, primarily
   because this role has the most long-term consequences. Attachment is formed through the way of dealing with the
   child, the way of responding or not responding to the child’s needs and signals. If the answers to child’s needs ware
   timely and adequate and the child shares strong emotional bond with the caregiver, the child will develop a secure
   attachment that will make him have a positive attitude towards life and have a feeling of safety. If the answers of the
   child’s needs are inadequate, untimely, absent or even frightening and the child shares week emotional bond with
   the caregiver, he will develop insecure attachment that will make him fill insecure, negative, and have negative mind
   set throughout life.
   A certain quality of attachment is experienced by everyone. Regardless of what the experiences in early attachment
   were, they represent the basis on which children build the image of themselves and others, positive or negative, and
   may represent a reliable base or an obstacle for further development.
   People carry with them this early childhood experiences through life and based on them they function in life and
   form their adult relationships. So, they may become avoidant - those who know and can do everything by
   themselves, because in the early experiences there was no response to their needs and signals. Their life strategy
   boils down to defensively rejecting others and relying solely on themselves. They can be successful but also alone.
   They may become anxious types - those who do not know anything and can't do it on their own, because in their
   early childhood they were noticed only if they lacked something. They elicit protective behavior, thus ensuring
   attention. They may become disorganized – those that are constantly riding an emotional, painful rollercoaster, who
   struggle to feel safe in relationships but/and may push others away, even while saying that they want intimacy. Cold
   one moment, then overly engaged the next. Because they had parents who constantly failed to respond appropriately