Do three-year-olds with secure parental bonds make better playmates? A University of Illinois study found securely attached kids adapt more skillfully to peers, even ones prone to anger or frustration.
Attachment parenting isn’t a scientific term, and Bowlby never prescribed slings or co-sleeping. When we get the terms right, arguments behind media-driven parenting wars dissolve in the face of the facts: emotional attunement matters more than popular techniques.
Attachment theory has been popularized, and sometimes distorted, since John Bowlby first proposed it. What actually matters for children’s development, research shows, isn’t co-sleeping or babywearing but emotional attunement.
