Hidden Signs of Insecure Attachment

Most parents are told to watch for big red flags. Meltdowns. Clinginess.

Panic at separation. But what if the real signs don’t look like distress at all?

What if your child seems calm, capable, even independent —

and that’s exactly why they’re easy to miss? For decades, attachment research

focused on what children do when they’re upset. Do they cry? Do they cling?

Do they calm when a caregiver returns? <break time="0.6s" /> But newer work shows something important. Insecure attachment

doesn’t always show up as distress. Sometimes it shows up as adaptation. <break time="0.6s" /> In this recent study,

researchers followed children who rarely signaled for help. They didn’t protest much.