Secure attachment is built when a baby feels that their primary caregiver will be available to meet their physical and emotional needs. Children with secure attachment use their caregivers as a safe base from which to explore their environment and to which they can return in moments of distress or discomfort.
This type of bond develops when the adult is sensitive to the baby’s signals and responds in an appropriate, consistent, and affectionate manner.
Numerous studies confirm that secure attachment, within a caring and predictable environment, has a very positive impact on child development and acts as a protective factor for health throughout life.
Among its main benefits are:
- Increased inner sense of trust and well-being, along with healthy psychomotor development.
- Greater capacity for emotional regulation and affective expression.
- Positive development of self-esteem, self-image, and self-concept.
- Ability to engage in self-care and to ask for help when needed.
- Development of reflective capacity and mentalization.
- Greater flexibility and better responses to stressful situations.
- Better social skills and more secure and satisfying relationships.
- This early bond lays the foundation for how children will relate to themselves and others in the future.
Positive parenting: a new way of accompanying our children
In a constantly changing society, many traditional educational models based on rigidity and authoritarianism have become obsolete. In contrast, positive parenting emerges as a respectful approach that places the child’s best interests at the center, prioritizing their well-being and holistic development within the family, social, and school contexts.
Positive parenting promotes relationships based on affection, understanding, and daily involvement. Children respond better when they feel heard, valued, and understood, when adults take an interest in their emotional world and encourage open and respectful communication.
This model is grounded in principles such as care and protection, the creation of safe and structured environments, positive reinforcement, emotional validation, and family psychoeducation, with adults acting as role models for their children.
Rules and boundaries with respect: Educating through positive parenting does not mean the absence of rules, but rather the exercise of a balanced and conscious authority. Rules and boundaries provide security when they are clear, coherent, consistent, and adapted to the child’s age. Their purpose is to support the development of autonomy and responsibility without resorting to shouting, threats, or punishment. Within this approach, consequences replace punishment and are understood as learning opportunities. The adult accompanies, explains, and guides, respecting the child as a person and strengthening the emotional bond.
Secure attachment and positive parenting: a shared path
Positive parenting and secure attachment are deeply connected. An educational style based on respect, affection, and dialogue fosters the creation of secure bonds, allowing children and adolescents to grow with greater confidence, emotional balance, and adaptability.
Accompanying children with love, coherence, and presence is, without doubt, one of the best investments in their healthy development and emotional well-being.
Grienenberger, J., Kelly, K. y Slade, A. (2005). Maternal reflective functioning, mother-infant affective communication, and infant attachment: exploring the link between mental states and observed caregiving behavior in the intergenerational transmission of attachment. Attachment and Human Development, 7(3), 299-311.
Hoffman, K., Cooper, G. y Powell, B. (2017). Cómo criar a un niño seguro. Medici.