The 4 Principles of Attachment Parenting and Why They Work

Attachment parenting isn’t at all a new phenomenon. Nor is it just another variation of helicopter parenting, itself somewhat of a misnomer and often confused with parental involvement in a child's life. Attachment parenting has a solid theoretical basis in one of the most widely accepted theories of personality-social development in all of psychology - namely, the attachment theory of Mary Salter Ainsworth and her colleagues. Over the past 30+ years, attachment theory has become the centerpiece of extensive research on healthy personality, relationships, and even occupational development. Couples therapy based on attachment theory, for example, is shown to be a highly effective way to help people repair damaged close relationships.