Attachment disruptions in seriously emotionally disturbed children: implications for treatment

Adolescents’ Lived Experiences of Close Relationships in the Context of Transnational Families: A Qualitative Study From Ecuador

Although transnational migration and its impact on families and society has received considerable attention from scholars, still little is known about its effects on the family members who stay in their home country. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore adolescents’ experiences of close relationships in the context of transnational migration. The study was based on in-depth interviews with male and female adolescents whose parents had migrated. For administration of these interviews, a tool consisting of 15 pieces of wood was developed in order to invite participants to represent family members in an expressive modality that could facilitate discussion and decrease tension provoked by parental migration. Thematic analysis showed that adolescents experienced growing up within tri-generational families whose structure and dynamics allow for a sense of stability. In these families, adolescents experience meaningful relationships that are important sources of support to cope with the delicate emotional situation inherent in transnational families. However, the present study also revealed that adolescents experience the relationship with their migrant parents as a recurrent source of distress and emotional ambivalence, leading to a potential perspective on the parent-child separation in the context of transnational migration as an experience of an ambiguous loss.

Perceptions of self, significant others, and teacher-child relationships in indiscriminately friendly children

OBJECTIVE

Despite increasing research on indiscriminate friendliness in children, almost no research exists on social-cognitive deficits that are supposed to underlie indiscriminately friendly behavior. In this study, we compared indiscriminately friendly children with controls regarding their perceptions of self, reliability trust in significant others, and perceptions of the teacher-child relationship.

METHOD

Children's perceptions were compared in two samples: a sample of 33 likely cases for disinhibited reactive attachment disorder (RAD) from special education for children with emotional and behavioral disorders (75.76% boys, Mage=8.52, 96.9% Caucasian, 33.3% and 45.5% of their mothers completed primary or secondary education, respectively) was matched on sex, age, and socio-economic status with a sample of 33 controls from general education. Children participated individually in several interviews assessing global and social self-concept, reliability trust in significant others, teacher-child relationship perceptions, and vocabulary. Parents and teachers completed a screening questionnaire for RAD and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire.

RESULTS

Likely disinhibited RAD-cases showed more indiscriminate friendliness and more problem behavior in general according to their parents and teachers than controls. Furthermore, likely RAD-cases reported a more positive global self-concept, more reliability trust in significant others, and more dependency in the teacher-child relationship than controls.

CONCLUSIONS

The results are in line with clinical observations of indiscriminately friendly children and findings in clinical samples of maltreated or attachment disrupted children but contrast hypotheses from developmental attachment research. Further research is needed to explain the more positive perceptions of indiscriminately friendly children.

Personality constellations of adolescents with histories of traumatic parental separations

Consistent with attachment theory and a developmental psychopathology framework, a growing body of research suggests that traumatic parental separations may lead to unique pathways of personality adaptation and maladaptation. The present study both examined personality characteristics and identified personality subtypes of adolescents with histories of traumatic separations. Randomly selected psychologists and psychiatrists provided data on 236 adolescents with histories of traumatic separations using a personality pathology instrument designed for use by clinically experienced observers, the Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure. Using a Q factor analysis, five distinct personality subtypes were identified as follows: internalizing/avoidant, psychopathic, resilient, impulsive dysregulated, and immature dysregulated. Initial support for the validity of the subtypes was established on the basis of axis I and axis II pathology, adaptive functioning, developmental history, and family history variables. The personality subtypes demonstrated substantial incremental validity in predicting adaptive functioning, above and beyond demographic variables and histories of other traumatic experiences.

Teacher-child relationships as a developmental issue

Teacher-child relationships may be a developmental issue in its own right, instead of an aspect of wider developmental issues such as attachment or adaptation to school. This paper discusses research findings on teacher-child relationships to argue that teacher-child relationships are important for carrying forward the experiences represented in the attachment behavioral system, although it is not clear whether teacher-child relationships themselves add to the attachment behavioral system or to the sociability behavioral system. The research demonstrates that attachment theory offers a useful template for understanding the role of teacher-child relationships in development. Listing teacher-child relationships among main developmental issues for today's children puts the spotlight on avenues for improving teacher-child relationships.

Emotional security with teachers and children's stress reactivity: a comparison of special-education and regular-education classrooms

Examined children's exposure and reactivity to negative peer and teacher events in special-education and regular-education classrooms. Participants were 40 children in regular classrooms and 20 children classified as seriously emotionally disturbed (SED) in special-education classrooms. Children completed 7 days of diary data over the course of the school year. SED children reported higher rates of exposure to negative teacher and peer events than comparison children. The self-esteem of both SED and comparison children was reactive to negative peer events in the classroom, but emotional security with teacher (EST) reduced this reactivity. The self-esteem of SED children was also reactive to negative teacher events but, EST, once again, reduced reactivity to negative events. Finally, SED children's perception of maternal warmth moderated their self-esteem reactivity and was concordant with their views of teachers. Results are discussed in light of treatment implications for SED children.

Attachment in mental health institutions: a critical review of assumptions, clinical implications, and research strategies

Attachment is relevant to institutionalized treatment and the therapeutic process in three identifiable ways: (1) patients bring their mental representations of previous and existing attachment relationships to the treatment; (2) attachment is relevant to the extent to which a therapeutic alliance is established and maintained, both in terms of the mental representations of attachment in the patient and in the therapist and how these influence interactive behaviour and expectations in each partner to the therapeutic work; (3) the outcome of the treatment may be related to attachment; for example, when institutional experiences have an enduring impact on attachment representations and the future attachment behaviour of the patient. However, this brief review of attachment concepts reveals that several theoretical, conceptual and empirical questions remain to be answered before evidence-based clinical attachment guidelines can be formulated concerning patient-staff relationships.