What does bonding have to do with school?

Attachment and education are closely linked. Children carry early attachment patterns acquired in the family into new relationships. And thus also to school, to teachers. This means that existing attachment patterns are revitalised, so to speak, in the teacher-student relationship. Because teachers spend a lot of time with the children - often more than the parents themselves - they have a major influence on their development. This is particularly important in stressful situations.

«Stress means that the child is less able to concentrate on school content because their perception is narrowed and focussed on the stressful situation,» says school psychologist Kurt Bollhalder in a school information leaflet published by the canton of Zug. «Memory performance decreases, physical restlessness may increase and you escape into a fantasy world, wander off mentally or become apathetic.» Anxiety also prevents new content to be learnt from being linked to content that is already known.

Securely attached children have the courage and confidence to ask for help and support.

Children experience stress from an early age: when they are hungry or afraid of new situations, when they feel alone. However, with the help of their closest and favourite attachment figure, they learn to deal with this. This good attachment behaviour helps them later at school when they experience stress, such as fear of failure, exam anxiety or social anxiety in a group.

Children who are well and securely attached then have the courage and confidence to ask for help and support, have relatively good self-confidence according to research, are psychologically more robust and have better quality relationships with their peers. However, they are also dependent on sensitive people at school.

Even more so are those children who are insecurely attached, i.e. who had or have a caregiver who was/is not able to offer the child security and protection. As a result, their desire to explore their surroundings and new things is impaired and characterised by fear. As a result, these children are less confident in asking for support or expressing their wishes.

«A child with insecure attachment can only experience psychological security at school through a relationship with a teacher who can recognise the child's needs and respond appropriately to the underlying relationship problems,» explains psychologist Claus Koch.