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Cornerstones of Attachment Research
Abstract
Cornerstones of Attachment Research [ free to download ] re-examines the work of key laboratories that have contributed to the study of attachment. In doing so, the book traces the development in a single scientific paradigm through parallel but separate lines of inquiry. Chapters address the work of Bowlby, Ainsworth, Main and Hesse, Sroufe and Egeland, and Shaver and Mikulincer. Cornerstones of Attachment Research utilises attention to these five research groups as a lens on wider themes and challenges faced by attachment research over the decades. The chapters draw on a complete analysis of published scholarly and popular works by each research group, as well as much unpublished material.
... Wczesne tezy Bowlby'ego wskazywały na szczególną wagę jednej, głównej relacji. Z biegiem czasu zmienił on jednak zdanie w tej kwestii (Bowlby, 1984), a ogromna większość badaczy przywiązania od dziesięcioleci nie zgadza się z tym wczesnym poglądem (Duschinsky, 2020). Badacze przywiązania na ogół twierdzą, że w toku ewolucji u ludzi ukształtowała się predyspozycja do utworzenia ograniczonej sieci relacji przywiązaniowych z określonymi, znanymi osobami, do których można się zwrócić w potrzebie (Abraham, Feldman, 2018; van Ijzendoorn, 2005). ...
... Kategorie przywiązania często są błędnie rozumiane i niewłaściwe stosowane w praktyce, a my zdajemy sobie sprawę, że społeczność badaczy przywiązania -nie wyłączając wielu spośród nas -mimowolnie przyczyniła się do tej sytuacji (Duschinsky, 2020). Zdarzało nam się propagować nasze metody oceny jakości przywiązania i wyolbrzymiać implikacje poświęconych im badań, a przy tym nie mówić jasno o ich ograniczeniach. ...
... Czynniki przyczyniające się do nieporozumień w przekładaniu wyników badań nad przywiązaniem na praktykę sądową Praktycy sądowi zauważają rozbieżność między obiecywaną użytecznością teorii przywiązania a jej rzeczywistą przydatnością w ich pracy (Robertson, Broadhurst, 2019). Choć pracownicy socjalni na ogół uważają badania nad przywiązaniem za potencjalnie wartościowe, często nie mają pewności, jak odnieść zasady dotyczące przywiązania do konkretnych przypadków, i obawiają się, że sędziowie i adwokaci mogą podchodzić sceptycznie do opinii biegłych odwołujących się do przywiązania (Duschinsky, 2020;North, 2019). Co niezwykle istotne, brakuje sformalizowanej infrastruktury, która pomagałaby praktykom w dopasowaniu aspektów wiedzy o przywiązaniu do potrzeb sądów i budowała związki między badaniami a praktyką. ...
... A key determinant of a child's attachment pattern is the caregiver's sensitivity, which involves the ability to perceive and appropriately respond to the child's signals of distress (Ainsworth et al., 1978;Duschinsky, 2020). Secure attachment is commonly associated with a caregiver who is sufficiently sensitive, providing consistent and appropriate responses to the child's needs. ...
Attachment theory provides numerous implications for mental health and individual functioning throughout the lifespan. Attachment styles, formed based on early interactions with a caregiver, play a crucial role in emotional regulation, relational satisfaction, and psychological well-being. Childhood experiences become the foundation for the development of internal models of self, the world, and others, influencing attachment patterns in adulthood. These patterns are significant for later relationships, especially romantic ones, mental health, and the development of psychopathology. If the primary caregiver responds consistently, supports, and comforts the child, the child will be inclined to cooperate, seek closeness, and feel loved and safe. Such a child will develop a secure attachment, viewing the caregiver as a secure base and a refuge from the unpredictable world. Individuals who formed a secure attachment style in childhood tend to create stable and mature relationships, exhibit greater psychological resilience, and are less likely to struggle with mental health issues. Conversely, if the caregiver is unresponsive or lacks sensitivity, the child may develop an insecure attachment style, characterized by heightened anxiety or avoidance. Attachment-related anxiety is associated with a persistent state of heightened vigilance, as individuals remain on alert, anticipating potential separation from their parents. Avoidant attachment is marked by a tendency to maintain emotional distance, reluctance to rely on others, and a lack of seeking comfort and support from caregivers. An insecure attachment style negatively impacts romantic relationships. Moreover, individuals characterized by attachment anxiety or avoidance are more prone to mental health disorders. Attachment theory provides a crucial framework for understanding the complex links between early relational experiences and mental health. Poor relationship quality, complex PTSD, depression, personality disorders—particularly antisocial and borderline—have their roots in early maladaptive relationships between the child and caregiver and may be related to interpersonal trauma. Secure attachment acts as a protective factor against psychopathologies, promoting emotional stability and healthy social functioning.
... John Bowlby (2005) envisaged the existence of two intertwined systems crucial to attachment and human survival: The child's need to seek comfort and proximity (attachment system), and the parent's corresponding drive to provide comfort and protection (caregiving system). Perhaps as a result, there has been a trend in the literature to overfocus on the 'security' of the parent-child relationship, rather than the environmental conditions that may or may not support the relationship, something that Bowlby was very aware of (Duschinsky 2020). Given the need to look at the impact of a worldwide and sudden change to the environmental context of parent-child relationships, the present study makes use of the focus of the Dynamic-Maturational Model of Attachment and Adaptation (DMM: Crittenden, 2016) on individual, dyadic and systemic adaptation to environmental and relational dangers. ...
The study explores fathers’ caregiving experiences and roles during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as felt impacts of restrictions on the father-child relationship, using the Dynamic-Maturational Model of Attachment and Adaptation (DMM). Six fathers were interviewed using the Meaning of the Child (MotC), and an attachment theory informed Thematic Analysis (TA) established three main themes: ‘Threatening proximity’, ‘Absent fathering’, and ‘Confused need and anger’. During lockdown restrictions, many participants perceived the higher-than-usual proximity and intensity of family relationships as threatening to themselves and their children. For most of the fathers interviewed, this encouraged a passive fathering stance, centred around the idealisation of independence and emotional and relational absence. Most fathers also felt their own needs conflicted with their childrens’, leading to increased anger in the relationship, which tended to be feared and distanced from, or experienced as residing only in the child. Several fathers shared unresolved childhood experiences around their own fathers’ confusing anger which still informed their mental processing. The overall sense of feeling ‘trapped with [their] children’, and the resulting experience of retreating from the inter-personal space and active fathering role, made it more of a struggle for these fathers to focus on providing protection and comfort to their children (and partners) in the context of a life-threatening, global pandemic. Whilst this study focussed on a general population, implications for clinical contexts are discussed.
Limited data exists on the role of attachment in influencing the development and wellbeing of refugee children. Herein we describe patterning and correlates of attachment in an Australian sample of adolescent Tamil refugees. Sixty-eight adolescents, aged 10–18, were assessed for trauma exposure, mental health problems and pattern of attachment. Attachment representations were assessed by discourse analysis of structured attachment interviews. Mothers of the adolescents were assessed for post-migration family stressors, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) using self-report measures. Inhbitory A and A+ patterns of attachment predominated. Attachment insecurity was associated with child trauma exposure (β = .417), post-migration family stressors (β = .297) and maternal PTSD (β = .409). Path modeling demonstrated that attachment insecurity mediated associations of child trauma exposure, family stressors and maternal PTSD with child mental health problems, the model yielding adequate fit (Comparative Fit Index [CFI] = .957; standardized root mean square residual [SRMR] = .066; R2 .449). Our cross-sectional findings suggest that compromised attachment security is one potential mechanism by which the adverse effects of refugee family trauma and adversity are transmitted to children. Resettlement policy and psychosocial services should aim to preserve and/or reestablish attachment security in child-caregiver relationships through policy that reduces family stressors and interventions that bolster parental mental health and caregiver sensitivity.
Concerns have been raised regarding misconceptions about attachment theory in child protection settings, but the application of attachment concepts in judicial child protection decisions has not been systematically explored. This study therefore examined the perception and application of attachment concepts in Swedish judicial decision protocols concerning involuntary removals of children (aged 0-2 years) where emotional neglect was a notable concern (n=28). Attachment concepts were frequently misunderstood, and imprecisely articulated. Unsystematic observations of child behavior were used to infer attachment insecurity and, by extrapolation, caregiving deficiencies. Attachment concepts were primarily used to support child removal, and insecure attachment seemed to be viewed as meeting the legally required level of risk to warrant involuntary child out-of-home placement. Our results indicate that misconceptions about attachment theory may be prevalent in judicial decision protocols. We emphasize the need to elaborate on risks in legally relevant ways without incorrect appeals to attachment theory.
Under the leadership of its founding editor, Dante Cicchetti, Development and Psychopathology has been recognized for decades as the foremost journal integrating developmental theory and clinical research programs. Contributors have often highlighted the implications of attachment theory and research for understanding developmental processes and pathways, and as a testing ground for intervention strategies. In this paper we reflect on the strengths and limitations of the traditional developmental perspective. We suggest that behavioral, cognitive, and emotional development are better understood as a process of bricolage (construction within constraints). This perspective is illustrated in an analysis of change mechanisms, and behavioral and representational changes, in attachment development from pre-locomotor infancy to later adulthood. Special emphasis is placed on ordinary learning and cognitive processes, rather than those specific to attachment, and on the roles that socialization pressures and changing circumstances play in shaping the course of attachment development.
Brett Kahr has referred to the death of Mary Main as the loss of "the queen of attachment research." However, how well is Main's work actually known? In this portrait and tribute, I argue that Main's transformative contributions have become a taken-for-granted part of the basic environment of attachment research, but that readers have faced obstacles in understanding and responding to their strengths and limitations. Drawing from interviews with Main, in this paper I describe some of her early life experiences and mental and physical health challenges, which she felt had influenced what was possible for her in her research. I then highlight less well-known aspects of her ideas regarding the role of attention within attachment strategies, the nature of disorganised attachment, the implications of alarming caregiving behaviours, and what is ultimately measured by the Adult Attachment Interview. My goal throughout is to help reader see both how much Main's rich and exciting works still have to teach, and identify their many loose threads still to follow.
Mary Main’s operationalization of infant attachment disorganization contributed to our understanding of attachment and psychopathology. Her exploration of attachment patterns at age 6 with Jude Cassidy laid the foundations for studying attachment post-infancy. They found remarkable correspondence from age 1 to age 6 in the disorganization spectrum and documented the emergence of role-reversal. This study proposes a person-centered approach to explore classes of children with respect to attachment disorganization at four time points between infancy and late preschool. Participants (n = 205) were recruited in the UK and formed a socioeconomically diverse community sample of mother–child dyads. We identified three classes of children: 1) a stable organized group; 2) an unstable group becoming organized; and 3) an unstable group becoming disorganized. Results show that major loss predicts membership of the third class of children. These findings contribute to our understanding of disorganization across multiple periods, and thus to Mary Main’s legacy.
This chapter reviews the findings of the research in terms of the wider relationships between AAS and society as a whole. It considers teacher views of inequalities of the impact of inequalities of power, wealth, social class, race and gender on attachment-related processes, including gender identity. It points to the continuing issues from the Covid pandemic, particularly in terms of mental health, and discusses the wider issues of power and authority which are involved. This involves a consideration of the role of ‘intermediate bodies’ such as local authorities, multi-academy trusts and voluntary organisations. The evidence suggests that, despite local efforts, local authorities have been largely marginalised as a result of neoliberal educational policies, although they continue to be referenced in government policy as a provider of last resort for vulnerable children. By contrast, the multi-academy trust (MAT)—itself a product of these policies—can play a significant role in promoting AAS, whereas schools wishing to pursue their own developments are highly vulnerable to performative interventions. This leads to a further debate over the way in which the issues of AAS continue to play out in political discourse, contrasting the views of Bailey and Ball (The coalition government, the general election and the policy ratchet in education: A reflection on the ‘ghosts’ of policy past, present. In M. Bochel, & M. Powell (Eds.), The Coalition government and social policy (pp. 127–152). Policy Press, 2016) with those of Ecclestone (Behaviour change policy agendas for ‘vulnerable’ subjectivities: The dangers of therapeutic governance and its new entrepreneurs. Journal of Education Policy, 32(1), 48–62, 2017).
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