Main Attachment

What are the implications of Attachment Theory and research for child custody disputes?

The Good News Many informed, thoughtful people have worked hard to develop placement guidelines. While their can be no definitive answers, certain principles can be stated. For young infants it is best for there to be a primary home, with away from home overnights not occurring or quite restricted for the first 18 months. Visitations by the non-custodial parent can and should be frequent, all other things considered.

IS THERE AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE STRANGE SITUATION FOR ASSESSING INFANT ATTACHMENT?

The Strange Situation, conducted as Ainsworth did it, derives its validity from its links to actual attachment/exploration and crying in the home, based on many hours of observation of each child. This is the absolute criterion. Any other measure that claims to be a measure of attachment must be shown to relate to actually observed attachment behavior.

ARE THERE VALIDATED MEASURES OF ATTACHMENT IN MIDDLE CHILDHOOD?

Basically, no. There are some promising leads. There have been measures based on drawings, story-stem endings and other narratives that have been show to be related to infant strange situation assessments, and this grants them some validity. These measures are interesting and have a great deal of face validity as well(see Bretherton ; Fury et al., 1997 in our references).

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN “ATTACHMENT” AND “BONDING”?

Attachment refers to the relationship between infant and caregiver or between to people in a longstanding, vital relationship. Like any important relationship it develops over considerable time; it cannot be instantaneous. In infants, it is not consolidated until the second-half year of life.

CAN ATTACHMENTS CHANGE?

It is definitely established that the quality of an attachment relationship can change notably, given notable life changes. This has been shown in infancy. For example, when the life stress of parents declines between 12 and 18 months, infants who were anxiously attached are more likely to now be securely attached than is the case than in families where stress remained elevated notably, given notable life changes.