Relation: Infant Mother Attachment and Eating Disorders

The purpose of this paper is to correlate the links between infant mother attachment and eating disorder behavior. Throughout this paper the two main theorists that are looked at are Mary S. Ainsworth and John Bowlby. Mary S. Ainsworth’s framework of attachment theory began in Uganda, while studying individual difference in infant behavior, which is known as the Strange Situation. John Bowlby coined the theory of infant mother attachment based on object relations psychoanalytical theory and the conceptualization that infants need healthy maternal bonds for later functioning as adolescents. Eating disorders have reached epidemic proportions over the last 30 years. Research shows that individuals with eating disorder have higher levels of insecure attachment than non-eating disorder individuals. Today, mental health professionals are becoming aware that both women and men suffer from eating disorders. Eating disorders have been recognized across all socioeconomic and racial groups in the world. In sum, the present study will differentiate whether previous attachment difficulties have any relationship with eating disorders symptomlogy.

Keywords: Infant-mother attachment, eating disorders, avoidant, secure

Introduction

John Bowlby

John Bowlby began researching his theory, after he graduated from Cambridge University, he began conducting his observations, while working at a group home for boys, who suffered from behavior problems. Bowlby believed that the attachment process involves cognition and emotional features of the attachment figure, the psyche, and the environment, based on experience (Cassidy & Shaver, 1999). Attachment theory initially began as an outline that normal and abnormal behavior existed....

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...sensitive mothers were more likely to be classified as insecure” (Bretherton, 1992, p.770).

“Secure attachments provide the child with a sense of comfort and predictability, encouraging the child to approach rather than avoid new developmental and interpersonal challenges” (Rice & Mirzadeh, 2000, p.239). For example, infants cried on separation from their mother, but when the mother returned, the infant was calm and soothed by the mother’s voice (Karen, 1994). “Mothers of surely attached children were found to be more responsive to the feeding signals and the crying of their infants and to readily return the infants smiles” (Karen, 1998, p.2). Approximately 65-66 percent of American infants have secure attachment relationships (Shaver & Cassidy, 1999). Children with secure attachment histories are more prone to psychological stress and anxiety as adolescents.