Early childhood attachment stability and change: a meta-analysis
Open accessAbstract
Examining degrees of stability in attachment throughout early childhood is important for understanding developmental pathways and for informing intervention. Updating and building upon all prior meta-analyses, this study aimed to determine levels of stability in all forms of attachment classifications across early childhood. Attachment stability was assessed between three developmental epochs within early childhood: infancy, toddlerhood, and preschool/early school. To ensure data homogeneity, only studies that assessed attachment with methods based on the strange situation procedure were included. Results indicate moderate levels of stability at both the four-way (secure, avoidant, resistant, and disorganised; κ = 0.23) and secure/insecure (r = 0.28) levels of assessment. Meta-regression analysis indicated security to be the most stable attachment organisation. This study also found evidence for publication bias, highlighting a preference for the publication of significant findings.
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Attachment insecurity is a key factor in the developmental pathways from ACEs to adult psychopathology.
“They also reflect the broader literature identifying attachment insecurity as a key factor in the developmental pathways from ACEs to adult psychopathology [17, 22, 24].”
From The link of adverse childhood experiences and attachment to maladaptive personality traits in adults diagnosed with substance use disorder (2025) · cites this paper as [24]
The Introduction describes early attachment as central to later social-emotional adaptation and insecure attachment as an adaptation to suboptimal caregiving. It does not establish attachment insecurity as a key pathway from adverse childhood experiences to adult psychopathology; the paper examines attachment stability in early childhood, not that adult outcome. (LLM, conf=0.82)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredAttachment style retains moderate stability across the lifespan.
“Although attachment style can evolve through significant relational experiences, longitudinal research indicates that it retains moderate stability across the lifespan [24, 25].”
From The link of adverse childhood experiences and attachment to maladaptive personality traits in adults diagnosed with substance use disorder (2025) · cites this paper as [24]
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- Authors
- Opie, J. E., McIntosh, J. E., Esler, T. B., Duschinsky, R., George, C., Schore, A., Kothe, E. J., Tan, E. S., Greenwood, C. J., & Olsson, C. A.
- Affiliations
- Royal Children's Hospital (AU)
- The University of Melbourne (AU)
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- Mills College (US)
- University of California, Los Angeles (US)
- Deakin University (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Opie, Jessica E.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Attachment & Human Development
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2020-08-10
- Volume
- 23
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 897-930
- ISSN
- 1461-6734 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-2988
- PMC
- PMC7612040
- OpenAlex
- W3045251904
- Cited by
- 80
- References
- 102
- Citations by year
- 2026: 21 · 2025: 20 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 4
- FWCI
- 0.84
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Attachment & Human Development (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Deakin Research Online (Deakin University) (submittedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- La Trobe University (cc-by)
- Funders
- Deakin University Postgraduate Research Scholarship
- Gowrie Scholarship Fund of the Australian National University
- Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (Grant Number: APP1175086)
- Medical Humanities Investigator Award (Grant Number WT103343MA)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Attachment and Relationship Dynamics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychoanalysis and Psychopathology Research
- Keywords
- attachment stability, attachment change, early childhood, attachment security, attachment avoidance, resistant attachment, disorganized attachment, insecure attachment, Strange Situation Procedure, infancy, toddlerhood, preschool, publication bias
- MeSH terms
- Child, Preschool, Humans, Infant, Mother-Child Relations, Object Attachment
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