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Updated: Dec 9, 2025

Assessing the Coherence of Parents' Short Narratives Regarding their Child Using the Five-Minute Speech Sample Procedure
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Assessing the Coherence of Parents' Short Narratives Regarding their Child Using the Five-Minute Speech Sample Procedure

Published on: September 19, 2019

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Object attachment, transitory attachment, and materialism in childhood

Marsha L Richins1, Lan Nguyen Chaplin2

  • 1Trulaske College of Business, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA.

Current Opinion in Psychology
|September 14, 2020
PubMed

Insights

Children

Area of Science:

  • Child psychology and developmental science.

Background:

  • Early research on object attachment primarily focused on infants and toddlers' attachment to soft objects for security.
  • This perspective overlooks the broader phenomenon of object attachment across all ages and motivations.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review the diverse reasons and motivations behind children's object attachment.
  • To introduce and define the concept of transitory object attachments.
  • To explore the link between childhood insecurities, transitory object attachments, and materialism.

Main Methods:

  • Literature review synthesizing existing research on object attachment in children.
  • Conceptual analysis to define transitory object attachments and materialism.
  • Discussion of psychological factors influencing attachment behaviors.

Main Results:

  • Children of all ages form attachments to a wide variety of objects, driven by diverse motivations.
  • Transitory object attachments, characterized by rapid attachment and un-attachment, are identified.
  • Materialism in children can be understood as a manifestation of repeated transitory object attachments.

Conclusions:

  • Object attachment in children is a complex behavior extending beyond infancy and soft objects.
  • Childhood insecurities play a significant role in fostering transitory object attachments and materialism.
  • Understanding these dynamics is crucial for addressing materialistic tendencies in children.

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