security blanket

A security blanket is any familiar object whose presence provides comfort or security to its owner, such as the literal blankets often favoured by small children.

The term security blanket was popularized in the Peanuts comic strip created by Charles M. Schulz, who gave such a blanket to his character Linus van Pelt, but the terms comfort object and security object are also used by professionals and academics. The most common popular name is blanky – sometimes banky, if a child has not acquired the ability to pronounce complex onsets – with terms including wubby (popularized by the 1983 film Mr. Mom) and wink.

English psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott spoke of transitional objects, loosely equivalent to the security blanket. Stuffed animals are sometimes carried in emergency vehicles and police patrol cars, to be given to children involved in an accident or traumatic event, to provide them comfort, thus filling a similar role.

Research with children on this subject was performed at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee by Richard H. Passman and his associates. Among other findings, they showed that security blankets are appropriately named — they actually do give security to those children attached to them. Along with other positive benefits, having a security blanket available can help children adapt to new situations, aid in their learning, and adjust to physicians' and clinical psychologists' evaluations. Passman's research also points out that there is nothing abnormal about being attached to them. In the United States, about 60% of children have at least some attachment to a security object.

See also

• Comfort object
• Pacifier
• Transitional object

References

• Passman, R. H. (1977). Providing attachment objects to facilitate learning and reduce distress: The effects of mothers and security blankets. Developmental Psychology, 13, 25-28.
• Passman, R. H. (1987). Attachments to inanimate objects: Are children who have security blankets insecure? Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 55, 825-830.
• Passman, R. H., & Halonen, J. S. (1979). A developmental survey of young children's attachments to inanimate objects. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 134, 165-178.
• Passman, R. H., & Lautmann, L. A. (1982). Fathers', mothers', and security objects' effects on the responsiveness of young children during projective testing. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 50, 310-312.

Further reading

• Creature Comforts, People and Their Security Objects by Barbara Collopy O'Halloran and Photographed by Betty Udesen.

This psychology-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v • d • e