Developmental change in attachment objects during childhood

ABSTRACT

Some children form an attachment to a variety of inanimate objects, such as cloths or soft toys, referred to as attachment objects. This study examined the developmental change in children’s behaviours toward their attachment objects to understand the role of such objects through an online survey of 700 parents with 0- to 9-year-old children, of whom 417 currently had attachment objects. Zero- and one-year-olds selected cloths and soft toys equally and used them with their mouth or skin, whereas older children preferred soft toys and personified them. Our results suggest that the role of attachment objects changes with age and that attachment objects contribute to reducing stress responses.

KEYWORDS:

• Transitional objects
• imaginary companions
• contact comfort
• anthropomorphism
• stress coping

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank parents who participated in our study and Editage (www.editage.com) for English language editing.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by JSPS KAKENHI [grant number JP17K18700].

Notes on contributors

Masanori Yamaguchi

Masanori Yamaguchi, MA, is a doctoral candidate in the Graduate School of Education at Kyoto University. His focus of study is imaginary companion and children’s conceptualization of it.

Yusuke Moriguchi

Yusuke Moriguchi, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Letters at Kyoto University. He has two main research interests: the developmental origins of executive function and young children’s imaginary world. Currently, he is utilizing both behavioural and neuroimaging measurements to tackle these questions.