Mary Ainsworth’s Attachment Continuum

Ainsworth’s Attachment Continuum

Attachment Behaviors

A                    B                    C

                 Intensity of Behaviors              low            moderate           high

Attachment Behaviors

Behaviors that show attachment are rather obvious. Babies or children that cry and throw a fit when their parents leave, or if they cling to them desperately. Phsyical and eye contact also reflect attachment.

Type A – Anxious Avoidant

This is the first type of insecure attachment, and it involves a low amount of attachment behaviors. Children with this type of attachment don’t trust their caregiver, they don’t want them around. Attachment is about trust, and Anxious Avoidant children, because they have learned that their needs won’t be met by their caregiver, have not learned to trust their caregiver, which means they don’t trust the world, and because they haven’t learned anything about trust, they also don’t trust themselves.

Type B – Secure

This is the secure type of attachment, this is where you want your child to be. Here, the level of trust is good, the child trusts their caregiver, so they can trust the world, so they trust themselves. Children with secure attachment feel safe to explore the world around them and use their caregiver as a base of sorts to do so.

Type C – Anxious Resistant or Ambivalent

This is the second type of insecure attachment, these children display excessive amounts of attachment and can be described as “clingy.” This insecure attachment also results from the lack of trust, but this time the child not trusting the caregiver results in the child not wanting the caregiver to leave, because the child doesn’t trust them to come back, hence the “clinginess.”