Introduction
In this case study, Terry and Bill have been married for five years and have a four- year -old daughter name, Dawn. The live a traditional lifestyle, where Terry is a stay at home mother and Bill works outside the home. Dawn’s parents have been very attentive to her needs, giving her all of their attention and were able to coax her out of bad tempers. Both parents agreed to involve Dawn with other children and enrolled her in a church preschool program. When Dawn was three years old, her parents had their second child Darren.
Darren was born with congenital heart problems, which required more attention and medical care. In this case study, Dawn attachment has gone from securely attached: children receive predictable, soothing and care to insecurely attach: display of distress elicit rejection, punishment or withdrawal (Broderick & Blewitt, 2015). Bill had to start working long hours and Terry found that caring for two demanding children and the bills to be very stressful. Terry was exhausted, became very impatient and her attention is now directed towards Darren. Terry feels that Dawn is more mature and has high expectations of her. Dawn is having difficulty adapting to the lack of attention from her parents, she has become more clingy or whining and started showing behavioral issues in her preschool classroom. In this case study, it gives an explanation of how parenting style and attachment can influence the attitude and behavior of a child.
However, analyzing this case study, the issues and the challenges presented will each help identify the lifespan development and attachment theories to help understand Dawn’s behavioral issues.
127 our experts are availableright now
John Bowlby’s attachment theory explains how a child’s first attachment with the primary caregiver changes and impacts the child’s psychosocial life. According to Broderick & Blewitt (2015), “Attachment is a system that serves three purposes: it maintains proximity between infant and caregiver nurturing the emotional bond; it provides the potential for ongoing protection and it creates a haven for the infant when distressed”. When children are given care at the right time, parents are responsive to the child’s needs and constantly accessible, the child begins to build trust, seeing others as dependable and reliable. In the case study, when Dawn was born, Terry quit her job and stayed home to care for her. Terry and Bill were very attentive, cared for Dawn and played with her when she was a baby.
When Dawn became fussy, resisted or showed frustration, Terry was patient and affectionate and could calm her down. Mary Ainsworth would call this a secure attachment; where the child receives predictable, soothing care when their physiological needs, fear, excitement or anxiety threaten to overwhelm their capacity for homeostatic regulation (Snyder et al., 2012). In this attachment style, the child is reassured by her mother’s presence, actions and gains confidence in their mother’s availability. However, Dawn had a secure attachment with both of her parents until her brother, Darren was born.
According to Volling, Gonzalez, Yu & Kennedy (2014), “The birth of a sibling can be a stressful life event for young children and their parents”. When Dawn was the only child, Terry spent time reading to Dawn, taking her on walks and helped her master tasks that proved to be frustrating to Dawn. Due to Darron’s heart problem, ongoing medical treatment, a specific regimen of care at home, fussing for long periods and being difficult to soothe. Terry and Dawn attachment relationship changed and brought a negative attachment experience with their interactions. The relationship between the first-born and the mother’s relationship can cause stressors due to instability in the attachment between the mother-child and the attachment may change to insecure attachment. Insecurely attached children are less able to regulate their emotions which put them at risk of developing feelings of fear or anger (Van et al., 2014).
This is seen in this case study; Dawn’s brother has a congenital heart problem and requires a lot of attention and medical care. Terry became stressed with caring for two children, is always tired and seemed to have less patience with family. According to Volling et al. (2014), “Stress on the family can make your older child’s adjustment harder”. The change in Terry’s parenting behavior causes the quality of the attachment between her and Dawn relationship to change. In Dawn’s preschool classroom, she began throwing toys when she was upset and often refused to cooperate in group activities. In the home, Dawn displays her neediness by clinging or whining and Terry becomes abrupt. In this situation, Terry should talk with Dawn to discuss her feelings about the changes in the family and acknowledge her feelings even if the feelings are negative.
When responding to Dawn behavior, Terry should respond with patience and understanding, and give her extra attention to help her feel secure again. However, Terry parenting style has changed since the birth of Darron, which has caused Dawn behavior to change.
According to Ranjana & Rani (2013), “Parenting skills are the behaviors and attitudes that set the emotional climate of parent-child interactions”. Dawn is expected to follow strict rules established by her mother, because she looks grown-up compared to her vulnerable brother, Darron.
Terry is expecting Dawn to do many things for herself, established a new rule that Dawn takes a nap or quiet time, and put her in time-out for being bad at school. Terry’s is displaying in her parenting style a case of authoritarian parenting. Authoritarian parenting is where children are expected to follow rules, parents don’t explain the reasons behind their rules, and they expect their children to behave exceptionally. Authoritarian parents are often strict, discourage verbal give-and-take and control children behaviors based on a set of standard and emphasize absolute obedience of the children (Ranjana & Rani, 2013).
At the age of 4 years old, Dawn is able to learn about people and relationship, learning to use language, and need structure and a routine to feel safe. According to Piaget, “The Preoperational Stage (2-6 years old) children learn to use language, children do not yet understand concrete logic, cannot mentally manipulate information and are unable to take the point of view of other people (Broderick & Blewitt, 2015)”.
Therefore, the language Terry uses with Dawn to explain the family changes should be developmentally and age appropriate.
In this case study, Terry and Bill once were giving Dawn the amount of attention she needed to keep that strong parent-child attachment. Terry and Bill need to involve family members or other resources (respite care, certified nursing assistant and parenting classes) to help take care of Darron so that they can have time to give to Dawn. Allowing a little time with Dawn each day to reestablish a secure attachment, to talk to her about her feelings will help to begin to strengthen their attachment and her behavior will be resolved.
Naraki & Rahim (2013) states that the perfect parenting style is authoritative; this form of parenting provides a caring, nurturing, encouraging and healthy environment for children, allows them to express their emotions, talk about ideas and verbalize their own thoughts (Afsheen, 2017).
