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The criteria for a diagnosis of a reactive attachment disorder are very different from the criteria used in assessment or categorization of attachment styles such as insecure or disorganized attachment. Children with RAD are presumed to have grossly disturbed internal working models of relationships that may lead to interpersonal and behavioral ...
The strange situation is a procedure devised by Mary Ainsworth in the 1970s to observe attachment in children, that is relationships between a caregiver and child. It applies to children between the age of 9 to 30 months. Broadly speaking, the attachment styles were (1) secure and (2) insecure (ambivalent and avoidance).
Insecure attachment styles in toddlers involve unusual reunions after separation from a familiar person. The children may snub the returning caregiver, or may go to the person but then resist being picked up. They may reunite with the caregiver, but then persistently cling to the caregiver, and fail to return to their previous play.
Clarification of terminology: The DMM avoids older attachment terms such as secure vs insecure, attachment categories and measures, attachment disorders, disorganized attachment, internal working models, and top level terms such as avoidant and ambivalent. It uses terms such as pathways of development instead of developmental trajectories.
A child with the anxious-avoidant insecure attachment style will avoid or ignore the caregiver – showing little emotion when the caregiver departs or returns. The child will not explore very much regardless of who is there. Infants classified as anxious-avoidant (A) represented a puzzle in the early 1970s.
The Infant CARE-Index (ICI) is procedure that assesses risk in parent/infant relationships. It was developed by Patricia Crittenden early in the development of the Dynamic-Maturational Model of Attachment and Adaptation (DMM) and can be used from birth, that is before infant's attachment strategies are established, and up to 15 months of age.
Infants and children with avoidant attachment tend to show no preference between their caregivers and the stranger. They do not actively seek much comfort of contact from their parents and usually tend to avoid them. In adulthood, those with avoidant attachment have difficulty maintaining relationships due to the inability to display emotions.
The Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC) is a 35-item parent-report questionnaire designed to identify children with difficulties in psychosocial functioning. Its primary purpose is to alert pediatricians at an early point about which children would benefit from further assessment. [ 1 ]