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Treasured objects in school-aged children
Insights
Many school-aged children maintain soft object attachments, but this study found no significant behavioral differences between children with or without these attachments. Parental attitudes and demographics did not influence object attachment persistence.
Area of Science:
- Child Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
Background:
- Soft object attachment is common in infants and young children.
- Research has largely overlooked attachment to soft objects in older, school-aged children.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate behavioral characteristics of school-aged children with and without a history of soft object attachment.
- To examine the persistence of soft object attachment into later childhood.
- To explore parental attitudes and demographic factors related to object attachment.
Main Methods:
- Survey data collected from parents of 171 children aged 9–13 years.
- Comparison of behavioral characteristics based on attachment history and current use.
- Exploration of correlations between parental attitudes, family demographics, and object attachment.
Main Results:
- Approximately 54% of children had a history of soft object attachment.
- About 49% of those who were attached kept their object until age 9.
- No significant behavioral differences were found between children with or without attachment history, or those who continued use versus never used an object.
- Parental attitudes and family demographics (sibling use, number of siblings, child's sex, etc.) were unrelated to object attachment.
Conclusions:
- Soft object attachment in school-aged children does not appear to be linked to significant behavioral differences.
- Parental influence on the relinquishing of soft objects seems minimal.
- The persistence of soft object attachment is not associated with specific demographic or familial factors.
Abstract:
Infants and young children often from tenacious, persistent attachments to soft objects. No investigation has focused, specifically, on an older school-aged population. Data were collected from parents of 171 normal children between 9 and 13 years of age from the middle to upper socioeconomic class. The study (1) compared current behavioral characteristics of children with or without a history of attachment; (2) compared the current behavioral characteristics of the children who have or have not maintained that attachment; (3) explored the relationship between parental attitudes and the persistence or disappearance of the object; and (4) explored family demographics and object use among siblings. Approximately half (54%) had formed an attachment to an object in infancy. Of the group of "users" approximately half kept it until age 9 years (49%). There were no significant behavioral differences among those children who were or were not attached to an object, or among those children who continued to use a soft object after age 9 years compared to those who never used one at all. Parents felt they had little to do, directly, with their child's relinquishing the object. Sibling use, the number of siblings, ordinal rank of the child, parents' marital status, sex of the child, and history of thumb-sucking were all unrelated to object attachment.