Loneliness in Young Children and Infant-Mother Attachment: A Longitudinal Study.

Although investigators have begun recently to elucidate the correlates of childhood loneliness, few have addressed empirically the developmental precursors of loneliness. Attachment theory provides one perspective from which to consider the familial antecedents of childhood loneliness. The proposition was examined here that one precursor of early childhood loneliness is insecure attachment. It was expected that the most loneliness would be reported by children who, as infants, had been classified insecure-ambivalent. As predicted, the most loneliness in early childhood was reported by children classified insecure-ambivalent in infancy. The least loneliness was reported by children classified insecure-avoidant in infancy, and an intermediate level of loneliness was reported by children classified secure in infancy. Findings are discussed in terms of the relative contributions of infant-mother attachment and infant temperament, and parallels are drawn to the literature on loneliness in adults