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Abstract

The first three years of a child’s life are filled with rapid growth and development. During this time, children absorb large amounts of information through experiences and the environment around them. These formative experiences lay the foundation for the rest of a child’s life. This literature review explores the influence of parenting styles and early attachment on children and young people’s development and their relationships. Its aims to analyse theoretical interpretations on how attachments are formed and maintained between parents and children, followed by exploring a range of parenting styles and how they support child development. It will focus primarily on westernised theories with in-depth comparisons to other cultures and ethnicities, to gain a deeper understanding of how attachment and parenting styles can affect child development. Then the range of relationship practices that children and young people engage in will be examined, with a key focus on how the internal working model can influence peer and adult romantic relationships. Parenting styles and attachment can influence the behaviour of children when engaging with others and this too will be discussed. This dissertation concludes that there is not one correct way to form an attachment with a child or parent, making it difficult to pinpoint the key areas that affect it. Different cultures, socio-economic backgrounds, ethnicities etc all have different experiences. However, through analysing theory both parenting styles and attachment have a significant impact on the way a child develops and can influence the relationship practices that they engage with in the future.

Course: Childhood and Youth Studies with Psychology - BA (Hons)

Date Deposited: 2022-04-08

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis13895.html