Attachment Style and Resilience Factors in Children of Female Sex Workers

Children of Female Sex Workers (CFSW) belong to one of the marginalized communities. These children live in situations where there is inadequate supervision or monitoring by their mothers because of their trade which entails odd working hours, and in addition not having a long term partner contributes to absence of a father figure to the children. Thus, mothers who are sex workers often struggle to provide adequate caregiving due to socio-economic conditions. Attachment is defined as an individual's characteristic way of relating to significant others that has been largely influenced by his or her interactions with the primary caregiver. Ainsworth identified three types of attachment styles: secure, anxious and avoidant. Children or adolescents who tend to develop secure attachment style are found to be more adaptive and resilient in the environment they live in. Hence this study explored attachment style, resilience factors and relationship between them in CFSW group. Attachment Style Classification Questionnaire (ASCQ; Finzi-Dottan, 2012) and Child and Youth Resilience Measure (CYRM; Ungar & Liebenberg, 2008) was administered on 57 CFSW aged between 12–18 years.. The results showed that, avoidant attachment style was predominant attachment style found in CFSW group. Secure attachment style had a direct relationship with psychological care-giving and avoidant attachment style had an inverse relationship with individual peer support, individual social skill and psychological caregiving.