Annotated Bibliography Elizabeth E. Thrall, C. W. (2009). screening measures for Children and adolescents with reactive attachment Disorder . Behavioral Development Bulletin , XVI, 4-10. This article evaluated two screening measures designed to aid in diagnosing reactive attachment disorder (RAD): the Relationships Problem Questionnaire (RPQ) and Reactive Attachment Disorder – Checklist (RAD-C). Fifty-three parents/guardians completed both rating scales.
Thirteen were adoptive/foster parents of children with a prior diagnosis of RAD, 12 were adoptive/foster parents whose children did not have a diagnosis of RAD, and 28 were the biological parents of children who did not have a mental health diagnosis (control) or a history of maltreatment. This article evaluated two screening measures designed to aid in diagnosing reactive attachment disorder. The RPQ was developed by Minnis to aid in the diagnosis of RAD. To date there has been limited information on the reliability or validity of the RPQ, and the research that has been conducted has been in Great Britain.
The initial study on the RPQ was with 121 foster families with 182 children in central Scotland. Test- retest reliability was assessed by having the caregivers complete the questionnaire twice with the second completion being done within three to five weeks after the first completion. Fu Mei Chen, H. S. (2011, April). The Role of Emotion in Parent-Child Relationships: Children’s Emotionality, Maternal Meta-Emotion, and Children’s Attachment Security . Journal of Child and Family Studies , 403-410. This study was intended to examine the relationship among children’s emotionality, parental meta- emotion, and parent–child attachment.
Mothers who tended to adopt an emotion- coaching philosophy were more likely to achieve secure parent–child attachments, as reported by their children. Children whose mothers tended to adopt an emotion-dis- missing philosophy reported lower levels of attachment security. There were no direct or indirect effects of children’s emotionality on their attachment security. Proper emotional interaction between parent and child is important to the formation of attachment. Children tend to rely on the attachment figure in times of stress.
High maternal sensitivity is especially important if infants in distress are to form adequate attachment security with the mother. The parents who were inclined toward emotion? listened to and talked with their children. This behavior is very important for forming secure attachment relationships. On the other hand, the parents who chose an emotion-dis- missing strategy wanted only to get rid of the anger; there was no supportive interaction. These parents not only lost the chance to know their children better, but the children did not feel accepted and supported.
The emotion-dismissing approach endangers children’s secure relationship with their parents. Gilani, S. N. (2011). Relationship of Parental and Peer Attachment Bonds with Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy among Adolescents and Post- Adolescents . Journal of Behavioural Sciences , xxi, 33-47. The relationship of parental and peer attachment bonds with career decision making self-efficacy among adolescents and post-adolescents was studied with a sample of 300 males and 250 females recruited from different government colleges and universities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Pakistan.
Significant positive relationship was found between parental as well as peer attachment bonds with career decision-making self-efficacy. When the relationship of parental and peer attachment bonds and career decision making self-efficacy was investigated separately for males and females, no difference was found. Study concluded that both parental and peer attachment bonds contribute in predicting career decision making self-efficacy, although parental influence seems stronger than the peer influence. Career development is another important aspect of adolescents’ life.
Selecting a career can be a daunting task for many youths who must balance their own interests with what is acceptable to their parents. Career decision-making is especially challenging for youth if their parents believe that only certain careers will lead their children to success. Parental attachment bonds are likely to have positive association ? with career decision-making self-efficacy of adolescents and post- ? adolescents. Jane S. Wimmer, M. E. (2009, July). A Preliminary Investigation of the Effectiveness of Attachment Therapy for Adopted Children with Reactive Attachment Disorder .
Child Adolescent Social Work Journal , 351-360. The purpose of this study was to provide a preliminary investigation into the effectiveness of attachment therapy for adopted children diagnosed with Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD). The children’s behavior in their adoptive families was characterized by lack of affection and an overall inability of the parents to effectively deal with their difficult children. Many of the parents expressed doubts about their ability to maintain the child as a part of their family if attachment therapy did not provide some improvement in their relationship with their child.
Attachment theory is based on the premise that infants need to form a strong bond with their mother or other primary care giver during their first year of life. A consistent, emotionally responsive caregiver is necessary for the development of emotional wellbeing and emotional attunement to others. Treatment modalities that have been empirically shown to be effective with families and children living with RAD have seldom been reported in the research literature.
The lead article in the September 2003 issue of Attachment & Human Development stated that there are no ‘‘established clinical guidelines for treatment or management’’ of disorders of attachment in spite of their inclusion in the DSM. The Georgia Office of Adoptions developed the Attachment Therapy for Adoptive Children with Special Needs program in response to the appeal from adoptive parents in the state for services that would help prevent them from returning their children to the foster care system. Kaye Colmer, L. R. (2011). Attachment Theory and Primary Caregiving .
Australasian Journal of Early Childhood , XXXVI (4), 16-20. Attachment theory was developed by John Bowlby in 1969 and provided a way to understand the nature of the mother/infant relationship. The quality of the attachment relationship forms the basis for emotional development. According to Bowlby, the foundations of emotional security are laid down in infancy (Harrison, 2003). In the early years this theory had some critics, as it was perceived as meaning that mothers were solely responsible for their infants, whom flew in the face of the feminist movement focused on emancipation of women.
The combination of responsive, warm and positive interactions, as well as continuity and consistency in the caregiving process, facilitates the development of secure attachment relationships. The focus in a primary caregiving system is on child-centered routines. Educators are able to ensure the routines in their primary care group are managed in a way that meets the needs of each individual child. The program is focused on the development of consistent, predictable relationships, which allow for primary caregivers and children to spend time together involved in experiences relevant to individual exploration and development.
A child whose primary caregiver is able to spend a significant amount of time with them throughout the day is better able to settle into the early childhood setting. Kerns, L. E. (2010, July). Mother–Child Attachment Patterns and Different Types of Anxiety Symptoms: Is There Specificity of Relations? . Child Psychiatry Hum Development , 663-674. The purpose of this study was to test Manassis’ proposal child-parent relations: Attachment and anxiety disorders, that attachment patterns (secure, ambivalent, avoidant, and disorganized may relate to different types of anxiety symptoms, and that behavioral inhibition may moderate these relations.
Using a story stem interview to assess attachment and children’s reports of anxiety symptoms, we found some support for these hypotheses in a sample of 10–12 years olds. Anxiety disorders and high levels of anxiety symptoms are associated with negative out- comes such as avoidance of developmentally appropriate activities and difficulties in social and academic settings. Thus, it is important to identify etiological factors that may account for the development of anxiety. Etiological models of anxiety have identified parent–child attachment and behavioral inhibition as possible risk factors for the development of anxiety symptoms.
Attachment is an emotional, long-lasting bond that a child forms with a caregiver who is not interchangeable with another person. Attachment relationships vary based on the quality of care that a child receives, and are associated with distinct patterns of child behaviors and cognitions. Securely attached children perceive their caregivers as sensitive and available, and use them as a secure base from which to explore the environment and as a ‘‘safe haven’’ to return to in times of distress. Philip A. Cowan, C. P. (2009).
Adult attachment, couple attachment, and children’s adaptation to school: an integrated attachment template and family risk model . Attachment & Human Development , xi (1), 29-46. Outside the attachment tradition, family risk models assume that many family factors affect children’s adaptation, chief among them being couple relationship quality. Most attachment theorists assume that parenting style is the central mechanism linking the quality of parents’ attachment with their parents and adaptation in their children.
The hypothesis that parents’ behavior provides a link between adult attachment and child attachment was generated by observations that infants characterized as securely attached tend to have mothers who are responsively attuned to their needs. The adequacy of the template explanation of how adult attachment affects children’s development is limited in part by the fact that investigators who are partial to attachment theory generally fail to examine plausible alternative sources of variation in children’s adaptation outside mother–child relationships.
For example, most studies focus only on mothers even though it is clear that children have important attachment relationships with their fathers that are, at most, modestly concordant with their attachment to their mothers. Poehlmann, R. J. (2010). Attachment and caregiving relationships in families affected by parental incarceration . Attachment & Human Development , xii (4), 395-415. Rebecca Shlafer and Julie Poehlmann studied several different families, but focused on 57 specific families that were participating in the mentoring program where the children’s parents were incarcerated.
In this study they have documented children’s feelings about their relationships with their caregivers and their incarcerated parents, assessed caregivers perceptions about the children, and examine the associations among the relationships and perceptions. In addition, they assessed children nine years old and older revealed that having no contact with the incarcerated parent was associated with children reporting more feelings of alienation toward that parent compared to children who had contact. About 63% of children were classified as having insecure relationships with nonmaternal caregivers with incarcerated mothers.
Compared to children who had experienced multiple caregivers since their mother’s incarceration, children who had been consistently cared for by one individual were more likely to be classified as secure. Symons, S. E. (2009, November). Representations of Attachment Relationships, the Self, and Significant Others in Middle Childhood . J Can Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry , 316-321. This research examines the interrelations of attachment security, feelings towards the self, and attributions about others in middle childhood.
Five-to nine-year-old children completed the Separation Anxiety Test, which provided a measure of attachment security and a puppet interview was used to assess feelings towards the self. A subset of 89 participants received vignettes of social situations with ambiguous outcomes to assess the emotional valence of children’s attributions. Secure children saw themselves more positively than insecure children. Children who were secure made more positive attributions about the intentions of others, regardless of whether the protagonist was a peer, parent, or teacher.
Security of attachment with caregivers in the pre- school period has been found to relate to relationships with peers and teachers. This research examines feelings towards the self and attributions of the behavior of others in middle childhood; a crucial period of transition in attachment security. The first goal of this research is to relate attachment representations to feelings about the self. Children were asked to respond to structured questions about a series of pictures of parent-child separations from the Separation Anxiety Test, and feelings about the self were assessed using a puppet interview.
It was predicted that children’s security and positive self-feelings would be significantly related. Timmer, A. J. (2012). Parent-Child Interaction Therapy: Enhancing Parent- Child Relationships . Psychosocial Intervention , XXI (2), 145-156. Disruptive child behavior problems are common problems for parents and can be associated with serious delinquent behaviors and aggressive/violent behaviors in adolescence and adulthood. Parenting interventions to address disruptive child behavior problems has gained widespread acceptance.
Disruptive child behavior problems -including aggression, oppositional behaviors, and noncompliance- are the most common problems for which parents seek professional intervention. Throughout the history of delivery of child mental health services, ‘child-only’ approaches (e. g. , play therapy, individual therapy) have been the primary interventions to reduce these types of behavioral problems. However, during the last few decades there has been a strong movement toward treating these types of disruptive child behavior problems through interventions that incorporate parents or are focused on enhancing parenting skills.
Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is a 14- to 20-week, manualized intervention founded on social learning and attachment theories. PCIT is designed for children between 2 and 7 years of age with dismptive, or externalizing, behavior problems. PCIT is conducted in two phases. The first phase focuses on enhancing the parent-child relationship (Child-Directed Interaction; CDI), and the second on improving child compliance (Parent-Directed Interaction; PDI). Both phases of treatment begin with an hour of didactic training, followed by sessions in which the therapist coaches the parent during play with the child.
From an observation room behind a two-way mirror, via a ‘bug-in-the-ear’ receiver that the parent wears, the therapist provides the parent with feedback on their use of the skills. Parents are taught and practice specific skills of communication and behavior management with their children. In addition to practicing these skills during clinic sessions, parents are asked to practice with their children at home for 5 minutes every day. Annotated Bibliography UGS: Modern Family Controversial Paper Alecia Pace UT EID:ap33553
