Disorganized attachment in infancy: a review of the phenomenon and its implications for clinicians and policy-makers
Publication Date
2017-07-26Journal Title
Attachment and Human Development
ISSN
1461-6734
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Language
English
Type
Article
This Version
VoR
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Granqvist, P., Sroufe, L., Dozier, M., Hesse, E., Duschinsky, R., & Steele, M. (2017). Disorganized attachment in infancy: a review of the phenomenon and its implications for clinicians and policy-makers. Attachment and Human Development https://doi.org/10.1080/14616734.2017.1354040
Abstract
Disorganized/Disoriented (D) attachment has seen widespread interest from policy makers, practitioners, and clinicians in recent years. However, some of this interest seems to have been based on some false assumptions that (1) attachment measures can be used as definitive assessments of the individual in forensic/child protection settings and that disorganized attachment (2) reliably indicates child maltreatment, (3) is a strong predictor of pathology, and (4) represents a fixed or static “trait” of the child, impervious to development or help. This paper summarizes the evidence showing that these four assumptions are false and misleading. The paper reviews what is known about disorganized infant attachment and clarifies the implications of the classification for clinical and welfare practice with children. In particular, the difference between disorganized attachment and attachment disorder is examined, and a strong case is made for the value of attachment theory for supportive work with families and for the development and evaluation of evidence-based caregiving interventions.
Keywords
disorganized attachment, infancy, attachment-based interventions, maltreatment, attachment disorder
Sponsorship
This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust: [Grant Number WT103343MA] and the writing of this paper was also facilitated by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation (Grant Number 51897) to Pehr Granqvist.
Funder references
Wellcome Trust (103343/Z/13/A)
Embargo Lift Date
2100-01-01
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14616734.2017.1354040
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/265249
Rights
Attribution 4.0 International, Attribution 4.0 International, Attribution 4.0 International, Attribution 4.0 International