Attachment Theory and Child Abuse

Alan Challoner MA (Phil) MChS

ABSTRACT

Child abuse is seen to follow a general pattern and it is the intrusion of fear
into
what might otherwise be good enough care-giving that is necessary for the
development of a disorganised or disoriented attachment. Research has shown
that in the case of the rejected infant only one signal is required to throw the
child into conflict. Withdrawal tendencies occur as a result of main carer�s
threat. This paper seeks to find some reasons for the perpetuation of abuse
through the generations, and draws attention to the potential remedies.

In recent years research has shown that the revealed characteristics of abusing
parents and abused children fit the pattern of attachment disorders. Fontana
has drawn attention to a �maltreatment syndrome�, in which child abuse is seen
to follow a general pattern. 1 DeLozier describes this pattern of dependent,
fearful, anxious, hostile, and depressed behaviour consistently found in abusing
families, as well as parent-child r�le reversal and the generational pattern of
abuse, as reflecting dysfunctional attachment and care-taking behavioural
systems in these families. 2

She describes the literature as reflecting varying degrees of anxious attachment

and detachment resulting from actual or persistently threatened disruption of
attachments. The intense separation anxiety, dysfunctional anger, distrust of
others and the environment, and restraints on the development of self-reliant
behaviour that are known to accompany attachment disorders are reflected in
the consistent description of abusing parents and children as dependent,
depressed, angry, anxious, isolated, hyper-alert, and distrustful.

Main and Hesse 3 have suggested that it is the intrusion of fear into what might
otherwise be good enough care-giving that is necessary for the development of a
disorganised or disoriented attachment. Fear is obviously a common experience
for physically and emotionally abused children. They suggest it is also probable
that there are frightening aspects of emotional and physical neglect. As Main
and Hesse have described, the concurrent activation of the fear or wariness and
attachment behavioural systems produce strong conflicting motivations when

1 Fontana, V. J. The maltreated child: The maltreatment syndrome in

children. Springfield, Ill.: Charles C. Thomas. 1971

2 Delozier. P. An application of attachment theory to the study of child

abuse. [Ph.D. dissertation], California School of Professional Psychology; 1979

3 Main, M.; & Hesse, E. Parents� Unresolved Traumatic Experiences are

Related to Infant Disorganized Attachment Status: Is Frightened and/or

Frightening Parental Behaviour the Linking Mechanism? In Greenberg, M.T.;

Cicchetti, D.; & Cummings, M. [Eds.] Attachment in the Preschool Years: Theory,

Research & Intervention. Univ. Chicago Press, 1990.

approaching the care-givers for comfort and they may feel the need to retreat
from them to safety. Proximity seeking mixed with avoidance causes frustration
and stress and if the approach tendencies equal the avoidance tendencies they
will inhibit one another.

Ainsworth has indicated that in the case of the rejected infant only one signal is

required to throw the child into conflict. Withdrawal tendencies occur as a result

of mother�s threat signals and these lead directly to approach tendencies. The
connection between these opposing tendencies is internal to the attached infant
and has no reference to the circumstances. As the approach is forbidden, the
attachment behaviour system is still further activated but approach remains
forbidden. Thus there is conflict as vacillation between approach, avoidance and
angry behaviour occurs. The only solution is a shift of attention toward
another figure. 4 (Ainsworth, Idem, 1982)

A psychoanalytic view has been expressed by Fine when he writes:

For optimal child-rearing, what seems to count more than anything else is the
maturity
and emotional health of the parent, and these depend on the inner structure of the
family.

Petrovich and Gewirtz propose that exposure to biologically inappropriate stimuli

during social development may functionally isolate such an individual from a
reproductive population. Infanticide and serious infant abuse are likely to be
observed under stressful conditions of intensified reproductive pressure,
environmental ecological depletion, and/or where the mother�s mate is not the
infant�s biological father.

In some species, the striking features of distorted imprinting and attachment

processes provide a provocative demonstration of sexuality channelled in the
direction of the biologically inappropriate object. Forced separation from objects

of attachment has deleterious effects on avian and mammalian infant behaviour.

If separation is prolonged or leads to privation and deprivation, the
consequences may be even more severe. In monkeys and chimpanzees,
isolation studies have shown that appropriate early social experiences are
essential for the normal development of sexual activity. In turn, prolonged
separation and deprivation may progressively lead to depression and related
withdrawal from social interactions. Human data on the development of
sexuality and gender identity, suggest also that sexual phenotypes, as
genetically programmed at the moment of conception, may be radically
modified and altered by �environmental� stimuli, such as chemical by-products
of other genes, hormones, or exposure during development to biologically and
psychologically inappropriate stimuli. ( Fine, 1991)

Cicchetti & Barnett 6 and Schneider-Rosen et al., 7 have shown from their
research that children at any age up to four years, who have been ill-treated by
parents, are significantly more likely to show insecure patterns of attachment.

4 Ainsworth, Mary D Salter. Attachment: Retrospect and Prospect. In

Parkes, Colin Murray; & Stevenson-Hinde, Joan. [Eds.] The Place of Attachment in
Human Behaviour. Basic Books, New York USA. 1982.
5 Fine, R. A History of Psychoanalysis. New York, USA, Columbia Univ. Press;
1979.
6 Cicchetti, D.; & Barnett, D. Attachment organization in maltreated pre

schoolers. Special Issue: Attachment and developmental psychopathology.

Develop. & Psychopath. 3(4); [pp., 397-411]; 1991.

7 Schneider-Rosen, K.; Braunwald, K.G.; Carlson, V.; & Cicchetti, D.

Current perspectives in attachment theory: Illustration from the study of

maltreated infants. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child
Development; 50(1-2); [pp., 194-210]; 1985.
Even those children who might be securely attached in their early months are
likely to lose that at later assessments if they are ill-treated.

A similar line of enquiry was pursued by Youngblade and Belsky, when they
examined the link between the aetiology of child ill-treatment and later
development together with the attachment outcome. 8 As others have done,
they also found a strong association between ill-treatment of the child and
attachment insecurity. Another factor uncovered was the aberrant inter-peer
relationship of those who had been ill-treated. They emphasised the link
between abuse in childhood and later transgenerational abuse of their own
children. The investigation highlighted the urgency of intervention measures at
a family level.

Several authors have reported comparable findings and Browne and Saqi
extended their conclusions to incorporate a suggestion that abused children
were more likely to show increased stranger anxiety and reduced exploratory
behaviour. 9 Extending this work into separate domains, Aber & Allen 10, used
three cohorts of children aged from four to eight years. These were divided as
to:

�
ill-treated children (93),
�
demographically matched non-ill-treated children from families receiving
welfare benefits (67),
�
non-ill-treated children from middle-class families (30).
The three domains were:

�
relationships with novel adults,
�
effectance motivation,
�
and cognitive maturity.
Assessments were made on ten dependent variables, and factorially analysed.
Two meaningful factors emerged:

�
on a factor measuring secure readiness to learn in the company of

novel adults; ill-treated children scored lower than welfare children, who in

turn scored less than middle-class children;

�
on a factor measuring outer-directedness; ill-treated children and welfare

children scored higher than middle-class children, but did not differ

significantly from each other.

From this it was suggested that maltreatment, occurring during early childhood,
disrupts the dynamic balance between the motivation to establish safe, secure
relationships with adults and the motivation to venture out to explore the world
in a competent fashion.
Theoretically the development of such attachment pathology (anxious
attachment and detachment) in a child�s attachment system could later become

8 Youngblade, L.M.; & Belsky, J. Child maltreatment, infant-parent attachment

security, and dysfunctional peer relationships in toddlerhood. Topics in Early
Childhood
Special Education; 9(2); [pp., 1-15]; 1989.
9 Browne, K.; & Saqi, S. Mother-infant interaction and attachment in physically
abusing families. Special Issue: Early child maltreatment. Jnl. Reprod. & Inf.
Psychol.;
6(3); [pp., 163-182]; 1988.
10 Aber, J L.; & Allen, J.P. Effects of maltreatment on young children�s socio-
emotional
development: An attachment theory perspective. Devlop. Psychol.; 23(3); 1987.
incorporated into the adult attachment and care-taker systems and would thus
affect both the development of parental behaviour and the development of
attachment in the next generation. Thus the transmission of abusive parent-
child interaction could be seen as resulting, to a great extent, from patterns of
attachment dysfunction that are perpetuated within the family.

DeLozier (1979) reports the results of a research project in which a group of

abusing mothers were compared to a comparable group of non-abusing mothers.
There was a clear pattern of severe attachment disorders in the group of
eighteen abusing mothers as compared with another group of eighteen typical
mothers. The difficulties appeared to originate from threatened disruption of
attachments, as well as severe discipline in early childhood; to have been
influential in the childbirth experience of the mothers; and to be manifested at
the time of the project, both in their general expectations of significant others
and in their pattern of response, to projected separation from attachment
figures.

In her summary DeLozier interpreted the analysis of the data collected in her
study as indicating that in childhood the abusing mothers experienced severe
threats of abandonment and harm. The children�s self-expectations and possibly
parental expectations were that they should care for their parents and this added
to a general uncertainty as to the availability of significant others.

Their histories contain some indicators of childhood disruptive events such as

family problems causing a parent to leave home, though not permanently.
During childhood the abusing mothers appear to have had to watch constantly
for indications of impending separation and other threats to care-taking. In
adulthood there is evidence that they viewed significant others as being
generally inaccessible. They appeared not to have developed adequate internal
representations of attachment figures and other significant individuals as
reliable
and accessible. Furthermore, the abusing mothers indicated that, at the time of
the birth of the later-abused child, they were generally fearful, felt alone and
unsafe, and were dissatisfied with the availability of significant others. Thus it

appears likely that the abusing mothers were handicapped by their own
attachment difficulties in their initial steps toward maternal care-taking.

She believed that all of the results were consistent with the present
manifestations of attachment difficulties as assessed by the Separation Anxiety
Test. On this test the abusing mothers indicated a high current level of
attachment disorder, primarily anxious attachment, but with some tendency
toward detachment as well. Thus the abusing mothers in the study
demonstrated their overall sensitivity to separation, especially mild separation,
and their feelings of helplessness anxiety, and anger in response to significant
separation experiences.

DeLozier suggest that these findings support the prediction that the abusing
mothers in the study have experienced difficulty in their childhood attachments
and in the development of internal representations of significant others as
accessible and reliable, resulting in consequent adult attachment difficulties as
well as in possible difficulties in the development of appropriate care-taking
behaviour.

There are implications that DeLozier perceives from her research and she
summarises them as follows:
The pattern of attachment dysfunction found in the abusing mothers in this
research

suggests the attachment-related origin of at least some of the inappropriate

parenting

directed toward their children. The dysfunctional development of anger and anxiety
are

two components of anxious attachment, especially if the expression of anger has

been
prohibited by the child�s fear of precipitating loss of care-taking. Once anxious
attachment has developed, separation signals can trigger expression of intense
anxiety
and anger. It seems possible that abusing mothers, who exhibit a high degree of
sensitivity to separation from significant others, interpret the normal behaviour
of their
children as if it were actual or threatened rejection. If so, these mothers would
be likely
to respond to such a misapprehension with dysfunctional levels of anxiety and
anger and
with feelings of rejection, self-blame, and helplessness. Not only could the
child�s normal
exploratory behaviour elicit such a response, but even such behaviour as normal
crying
could function as a danger signal to the anxiously attached mother. Thus the
attachment-
related response of the mother may result in the inappropriate direction of
anxiety and
anger toward the child who, owing to the expectations that the mother maintains
regarding attachment figures� that they will be inaccessible and unreliable.

Furthermore, the development of competence in a child depends not only on the

parent�s appropriate response to his attachment behaviour, but also on
encouragement of
the child�s increasing self-reliance. If the parent, however, responds to normal
parent-
child separation with intense levels of anxiety or anger, increased attachment
need,
decreased self-reliance, and feelings of rejection, the parent will be more than
likely to
discourage the child�s exploratory and self-reliant behaviour, especially in
inverted parent-
child relationships, thereby even further hampering the child�s development.
(Idem,
1982)

In a later study, Crittenden assessed what the differences were between ill-
treated and adequately reared infants, whether they existed at birth, and if the
differences could be positively changed. She devised two experiments:

EXPERIMENT 1 Thirty-eight low socio-economic scale infants, aged from one to 19

months, were assessed in terms of:

�
congenital abnormalities,
�
mother-child interactions,
�
developmental delay.
The thirty-eight mothers of these infants, aged 15 to 49 years, were classified
as:

�
abusing (8),
�
neglecting (10),
�
problematic (10),
�
adequate (10).
EXPERIMENT 2 Seventy-three low socio-economic scale infants, aged from two to
24 months, were similarly assessed, but in addition their pattern of attachment
to their mother was also assessed, as was a change in their pattern of
interaction when the sensitivity of a second adult was experimentally
manipulated. Their mothers, aged 13 to 35 years, were classified as:

�
abusing (17),
�
neglecting (21),
�
problematic (22),
�
adequate (13)
The results gave evidence that:

�
the mother initiates the maltreatment but both mother and infant behave
thereafter to maintain the situation;
�
the ill-treated subjects did not differ from adequately reared subjects in
congenital characteristics;
�
however the ill-treated subjects displayed some differences in characteristics
that could have been affected by environmental conditions;
�
the abused subjects were difficult, mildly delayed, and angry when stressed;
�
the neglected subjects tended to be passive, significantly delayed, and
somewhat helpless when stressed.
When intervention procedures were introduced with the mothers, ill-treated
subjects showed developmental gains and began to behave more co-operatively
in their interactions. 11

It is important to understand how abused children react when they are placed
into the care of alternative adults following abuse at home. Howes & Segal
investigated this situation with 16 children who had been removed from their
homes owing to abuse and, or, neglect. It was found that the children were just
as likely to form insecure and particularly insecure-avoidant, attachment
relations with the alternative care-givers as might be expected had they
remained at home. The subjects did vary in their attachment behaviour
depending upon the particular care-giver, and the attachment classifications
were inconcordant. This approximated to a division between the more sensitive
and less-detached care-givers on morning sessions, than with the lesser
motivated afternoon care-givers. The highest secure scores on attachment was
directly related to the longest placement with the more sensitive care-givers. 12

In conclusion, an attachment theory view of child abuse calls for the early
detection of attachment disorders in both parent and child, assessment of the
extent of attachment dysfunction in high-risk families, and intervention with
abusive families to reduce separation anxiety and support the more adequate
development of attachment bonds. In this regard, for example, the common
practice of removal of the child from the home warrants careful inspection.
Although sometimes mandatory for the child�s protection, such an intervention
further strains the poorly developed attachment relationships within the family
and further adversely affects the development of attachment and self-reliance in
the child. Moreover, if the child is to be returned home eventually, separation in

and of itself will serve to activate attachment behaviours upon reunion that
further stress parent-child relations, possibly eliciting further abuse.

Crittenden�s work that suggests that some ill-treated infants actively contribute
to their own misery needs careful consideration and checking. If this outcome is
comprehensively established then it has relevance in adult situations. In
particular it might be asked whether spouse abuse is a continuation of this effect

, albeit in another attachment relationship.

From the attachment theory perspective, therefore, efforts should be made to:

�
direct child-abuse treatment to the family unit where possible, with the child
either remaining in the home under close supervision or with frequent,
prolonged contact between parent and child during separation;
11 Crittenden, P.M. Maltreated infants: Vulnerability and resilience. Jnl. Child
Psychol.
& Psychiat. & Allied Discp.; 26(1); [pp., 85-96]; 1985.
12 Howes, C.; & Segal, J. Children�s relationships with alternative care-givers:
The
special case of maltreated children removed from their homes. Jnl. Appl. Develop.
Psychol.; 14(1); [pp., 71-81]; 1993.
�
provide interventions in abusive and potentially abusive families that support
the development of attachment bonds in children and remedy attachment
dysfunctions in both children and adults; and
�
direct attention toward the provision of support to all parents in their r�le as
care-givers, thus enabling them to provide more reliable and accessible care-
giving to their children.
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For Want of a Better Good

Author: Alan Challoner MA (Phil) MChS

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