While I think most of us know that children easily get attached to objects, there are small pieces that might tell us why they get so attached to such pointless objects and how this attachment can impact them in the future.

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            Parents have a large role in how children develop attachment, and whether or not the child will be secure or insecure as it grows and develops. There are two aspects to this one is related to “attachment parenting” which is keeping the young child closer to the parent and comforting the child while it is growing (Christian Jarrett). In infants, this is best used through co-sleeping and feeding at a specific time. The attention that children receive allows them to feel a sense of security within these first relationships. The attachment developments during the first years of people’s lives directly impact the way attachment is portrayed in adolescent, teen, and adult years.

            For adolescent children and teens this most common form of negative attachment is through object attachment, and materialism. When young children learn about objects and knowing that something is theirs and they own it, they develop envy. These objects that children are attached to become a “transitional object” before adolescent and teen years (Christian Jarrett). This envy and ownership becomes more prevalent in adolescent years and teen years with wanting what others have, because there is a higher value put on being similar to others and needing to fit in. Through insecurities and low self-esteem, adolescent children and teens have grown to judge and feel judged based on what they have and what they look like. Wanting to it in directly impacts how they continue to develop attachment during this time of life. This age range is a very important time for attachment development because it is a time where people are starting to truly form their own identity, or at least finding more out about who they might be.

            As people enter adult hood their sense of self changes, but how much it changes from teen years may not be too different. As adults begin to create lives and buy houses and new cars and establish careers, “things [being to] embody a sense of self-hood and identity” for people and how they represent themselves to others (Christian Jarrett). Objects not only start to define people start to see their “things as an extension of [themselves]” and it might even have an impact on how confident people are in themselves (Christian Jarrett). When people start to identify themselves with objects they begin to lose a part of themselves, because everything starts to become a show.

            In order to create a stronger sense of self internally, people need to allow themselves to let go of the object created attachment throughout their life, and see that these objects do not truly define who they are. People must separate themselves from the judgement and hate that others put into the world, and recognize that their value and self-identity comes from within.

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Reference

Jarrett, Christian. “The Psychology of Stuff and Things.” The Psychology of Stuff and Things | The Psychologist, The British Psychology           Society, thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-26/edition-8/psychology-stuff-and-things.