Attachment

Rather than relying on the stability of social relationships, detached and abused children either disdain human contact, or worse, come to loathe and fear these connections. Such problems are explored more deeply in the second (Separation: Anxiety and Anger) and third (Loss: Sadness and Depression) volumes of the Attachment series. However, at the close of Volume I, Bowlby lays out a clear perspective on the importance of attachment in personality development:

A young child's experience of an encouraging, supportive, and co-operative mother, and a little later, father, gives him a sense of worth, a belief in the helpfulness of others, and a favorable model on which to build future relationships...by enabling him to explore his show more environment with confidence and to deal with it effectively, such experiences also promote his sense of competence. (p. 378) show less

Volume 1, Attachment, is devoted to an analysis of the nature of the child's tie to his mother. An examination of instinctive behavior leads to a theoretical formulation of attachment behavior- how it develops, how it is maintained, and what function it fulfills. Source: Basic Books description to Vol. 1 in Attachment & Loss 1969 trilogy.

This first volume of John Bowlby's Attachment and Loss series examines the nature of the child's ties to the mother. Beginning with a discussion of instinctive behavior, its causation, functioning, and ontogeny, Bowlby proceeds to a theoretical formulation of attachment behavior how it develops, how it is maintained, what functions it fulfills. In the fifteen years since Attachment was first published, show more there have been major developments in both theoretical discussion and empirical research on attachment. The second edition, with two wholly new chapters and substantial revisions, incorporates these developments and assesses their importance to attachment theory. Source: Amazon show less

discusses how attachment and loss can affect a child's development and social skills.
1 book

worth reading, again, and again, Seriously if your not a psych major or professional you will read it again and again to understand