Failed Early Childhood Attachments and the Subsequent Disruptive Use of Social Media as Contributing Factors to Later Life Development of Extreme/Radical Ideologies
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Extreme and radical ideologies have become the primary ideologies in virtually every aspect of our social, political, business, individual lives. Given this development, an extensive literature review was conducted in order to identify the life experiences that influenced the later life development of extreme/radical ideologies. This literature review consistently identified both childhood attachments and excessive use of social media formats as being related to the development extreme/radical ideologies. These associations, however, were not validated by the use of research methodologies. In response to this shortcoming, a research protocol was developed to statistically define the relationship between childhood attachment, the use of social media and the later life development of extreme/radical ideologies. These initial findings either failed to identify any or, at best, very weak correlations between childhood attachment or extreme/radical ideologies and extreme/radical ideologies. In response to these findings, an additional set of analyses were developed that combined the attachment scores and the social media scores into a single composite variable. The new combined variables provided consistent significant correlations with the extreme/radical variables. The rationale for developing a combined variable was based on the complexity of the development of extreme/radical ideologies that was identified in the literature review. In summary, the findings provide social workers and mental health practitioners a clear mandate for their role in preventing the development of extreme/radical ideologies with in the family unit as well as promoting government involvements to provide the needed resources to facilitate macro level prevention strategies.
Source: Social Sciences
Authors: Peter Stacy, Kyla Richardson
Institution: Michigan Technological University
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4410145695