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.
| Published in | Social Sciences (Volume 14, Issue 2) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.ss.20251402.19 |
| Page(s) | 159-171 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Early Childhood, Attachments, Disruptive Use, Social Media, Extreme/Radical, Ideologies
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APA Style
Stacy, P. D., Richardson, K. (2025). Failed Early Childhood Attachments and the Subsequent Disruptive Use of Social Media as Contributing Factors to Later Life Development of Extreme/Radical Ideologies. Social Sciences, 14(2), 159-171. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ss.20251402.19
ACS Style
Stacy, P. D.; Richardson, K. Failed Early Childhood Attachments and the Subsequent Disruptive Use of Social Media as Contributing Factors to Later Life Development of Extreme/Radical Ideologies. Soc. Sci. 2025, 14(2), 159-171. doi: 10.11648/j.ss.20251402.19
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Download@article{10.11648/j.ss.20251402.19,
author = {Peter David Stacy and Kyla Richardson},
title = {Failed Early Childhood Attachments and the Subsequent Disruptive Use of Social Media as Contributing Factors to Later Life Development of Extreme/Radical Ideologies
},
journal = {Social Sciences},
volume = {14},
number = {2},
pages = {159-171},
doi = {10.11648/j.ss.20251402.19},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ss.20251402.19},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ss.20251402.19},
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.
},
year = {2025}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Failed Early Childhood Attachments and the Subsequent Disruptive Use of Social Media as Contributing Factors to Later Life Development of Extreme/Radical Ideologies AU - Peter David Stacy AU - Kyla Richardson Y1 - 2025/04/29 PY - 2025 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ss.20251402.19 DO - 10.11648/j.ss.20251402.19 T2 - Social Sciences JF - Social Sciences JO - Social Sciences SP - 159 EP - 171 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2326-988X UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ss.20251402.19 AB - 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. VL - 14 IS - 2 ER -
Department of Cognitive and Learning Sciences, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, Michigan, United States
Department of Cognitive and Learning Sciences, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, Michigan, United States
