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Bowlby's theory of attachment suggests that certain behaviours such as laughing, crying and smiling, that promote attachment formation between a parent and their child, have evolved to be innate "social releasers", increasing the chance of the child's survival. Bowlby developed this to include the principle of "monotropy" - that children form a strongest relationship to their primary caregiver, and the concept of an "internal working model" - a collection of schemas that help the child define how future relationships should be. The internal working model then plays a role in the "continuity hypothesis" - Bowlby's suggestion that the quality of the first relationships in childhood are mirrored by adult relationships - loving, secure and affectionate childhood are often followed by the same in adulthood.
Black and Schutte provide supporting evidence for the continuity hypothesis through a survey of 205 young adults on their childhood and adult relationships. Those who recalled positive, loving and trusting maternal relationships were more likely to report trusting and loving relationships with their partner in adulthood, as well as being more open with them, supporting Bowlby's claims of continuity of attachment.
An issue is that Black and Schutte's study can be considered unscientific due to its subjective methodology, asking people retrospectively about their early life. This form of data collection is unfalsifiable, unquantifiable, and possibly inaccurate due to social desirability bias - people might not be willing to admit a poor relationship quality. These methodological flaws weaken the strength of the supporting evidence for Bowlby's continuity hypothesis.
Ainsworth carried out the "Strange Situation" observation to categorise the strength and type of attachment in children, and suggested that attachment types remain constant throughout life - for example, a securely attached child will grow up to have securely attached romantic relationships later in life. She identified three types of attachment: Insecure Avoidant (Type A) who showed some distress at separation from their mother, but did not seek comfort upon reunion, Secure (Type B) who were upset at separation but showed joy and sought comfort upon reunion, and Insecure Ambivalent (Type C) who showed distress upon separation but weren't easily comforted upon reunion, expecting a difficult maternal relationship and alternating between seeking closeness and distance.
Levine and Heller (2011) provided supporting evidence for Ainsworth's suggested continuity of attachment types. People who had secure attachments in childhood were comfortable with intimacy, and usually warm and loving towards their partners. Those who had insecure-ambivalent relationships crave intimacy, are often preoccupied with their relationships, and worry about their partners' ability to love them back. Those who were insecure-avoidant equate intimacy with a loss of independence, and keep at an emotional distance - these findings support the hypothesis that Ainsworth's attachment styles predict later relationship behaviour.
Hazan and Shaver found a strong connection between childhood and adult attachment styles, supporting the importance of Ainsworth's early attachment styles in determining future relationships. Securely attached participants reported a belief in lasting love, found others trustworthy, and were confident that they were lovable. Insecure avoidant participants were doubtful about the existence of love, not requiring a relationship to be happy. Insecure ambivalent participants fell in love easily, were insecure and doubtful, and rarely found true love.
The idea that childhood attachment type is solely responsible for adult relationship style, with no other factors, is a very deterministic idea. Zimmerman et al (2000) assessed children until adulthood, and found that critical life events such as parental separation were a much stronger predictor of future attachment type and strength than the quality of early childhood attachments were, suggesting that Bowlby and Ainsworths' hypotheses are overly determinist in claiming that adult relationship quality is completely and irrevocably dependent on childhood attachment type.
An issue with these theories into the influence of childhood on relationships is that parenting styles differ between cultures, suggesting that childhood influences also vary cross-culturally. Therefore, to generalise results from one culture onto another and suggest a global model of attachment and relationships is imposing an etic construct. Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg's 1988 meta-analysis of many cross-cultural studies into attachment found significant differences in how common each attachment style is - secure attachments may be most common in the UK and the USA, but others were more common in Germany and Israel. This suggests that there are different internal working models in different cultures, so these theories of attachment cannot necessarily be accurately applied globally.
Koluchova's study of a pair of Czech twins challenges Ainsworth and Bowlby's theories of attachment continuity. Having suffered extreme privation and abuse from age 18 months until 7 years, the twins did not form any parental attachments, and were starved and beaten. However, they went on to be adopted and grew up to have normal lives and secure relationships. This shows that difficulties with childhood attachments can be overcome, and that childhood attachment types will not always predict the nature of adult relationship types.
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