What Does Healthy Emotional Expression Look Like in Infants and Young Children?

Healthy emotional development in infants and young children is characterized by attachment, joy, and happiness.

Attachment is a crucial emotional experience. Beginning around 6–7 months after birth, infants form attachments to familiar individuals—primarily their mothers. This represents a positive, affectionate emotional bond marked by deep concern for the presence of the attachment figure: infants feel happy when the attachment figure is present and anxious or distressed when absent. Attachment styles are generally categorized as secure, avoidant, or resistant.

Secure attachment fosters infants’ trust in themselves, their parents, and their peers, and supports the development of active exploratory behavior. It lays a solid foundation for children’s subsequent cognitive development, social competence, and personality formation.

Therefore, it is recommended that caregivers remain consistent—from the infant’s 6th–7th month up to age one—to promote secure attachment and help prevent future mental health issues.