A Literature Review of How Children Secure Attachment Predict Better Academic Performance

Abstract

Parental attachment theory provides the fundamental theory for how children have been emotionally bonded with their primary caregiver. This attachment was found to be critical in children’s cognitive and social-emotional progress. How proximity children’s attachment with primary caregivers will directly influence their attachment style. The current research aimed to discover whether securely attached children predict higher academic performance among primary school children. Secure attachment refers to children who have developed a secure, comfortable and confident with the primary caregivers, which enables these children to securely explore the world. Securely attachment children were found to outperform insecure attachment children in mathematics, reading, and verbal skills, these abilities could be traced from the preschool period. The underlying reason why secure attached children outperform is due to their better attention skills, more independent in problem-solving during the study, and higher study motivation. Suggestions have also been widely discovered in the current study that sensitive parenting is the most critical in forming a secure attachment. By studying this, educational assistance could be applied to support children with insecure attachment and educate parents who want to improve their children’s academic scores.