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Early attachments to caregivers are the building blocks for a child’s social relationships and emotional well-being.

From their first days, babies naturally look to their parents or caregivers to respond to them in consistent, sensitive, and loving ways. When babies and children find their caregivers to be responsive, they form secure attachments to them. Secure attachments help give children the confidence to explore their world, learn, and grow. While the early years of infancy are important, attachments can be formed and improved throughout childhood and the teen years.

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Attachment, Motherhood, and Mental Health

  • By: Jessica Zucker, Ph.D.

    • This is an interview conducted with Dr. Jessica Zucker by Therese J. Borchard of Beyond Blue Question: You mention that children who form secure attachments ...

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Relational Strivings

  • By: Jessica Zucker, Ph.D.

    • Although each participant narrated her own unique developmental unfolding, many of the women interviewed explained feeling that there was “never enough” ...

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Balancing Work and Family

  • By: Dr. Paula Bloom

    • Being a mom feels like I’m riding a see-saw sometimes. There is family on one side and work on the other. Very rarely has this see-saw been horizontal and ...

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Like Oil and Water

  • By: Jessica Zucker, Ph.D.

    • A few weeks ago my blog post explored a snippet of my dissertation research.  In an effort to learn more about early attachment and its impact on ...

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The Experience of Touch and the Development of Self

  • By: Jessica Zucker, Ph.D.

    • Skin is the largest sense organ that humans possess (Brennan & Loev, 1998).  Our skin is what delineates and makes evident our subjectivity from ...

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Intergenerational Transmission of Attachment

  • By: Jessica Zucker, Ph.D.

    • Last week my blog post explored the historical underpinnings of attachment theory.  John Bowlby, the father of attachment theory, spearheaded research ...

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The Birth of Attachment Theory

  • By: Jessica Zucker, Ph.D.

    • John Bowlby began his clinical observations of attachment behavior in the 1960s while working in a home for maladjusted boys.  Two relationships in ...

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Pornography and Attachment

  • By: Jessica Zucker, Ph.D.

    • Here is a glimpse into my dissertation research, which explores the vicissitudes of the mother-daughter attachment relationship through the lens of women ...

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This Emotional Life is a co-production of the NOVA/WGBH Science Unit and Vulcan Productions, Inc. A Film by Kunhardt McGee Productions. ©/™ 2009 WGBH Educational Foundation and Vulcan Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Funding for This Emotional Life is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Public Television Viewers. Additional funding provided by the University of Phoenix and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

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