Schaffer's stages of attachment child development research provides crucial insights into how infants form emotional bonds. This comprehensive study by Rudolph Schaffer and Peggy Emerson tracked 60 Glasgow babies over 18 months, identifying four distinct stages of attachment development and revealing that attachment quality depends more on responsive caregiving than time spent together.
• The research established four key stages: asocial, indiscriminate attachment, specific attachment, and multiple attachments
• Findings showed that by 40 weeks, 80% of infants had formed specific attachments
• The study's longitudinal design provided robust data despite some methodological limitations
• Results challenged previous assumptions about attachment formation being solely based on time spent together
