Editing Attachment theory (section)

===Clinical practice in children===
Although attachment theory has become a major scientific theory of [[Developmental psychology|socioemotional development]] with one of the widest research lines in modern psychology, it has, until recently, been less used in clinical practice.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cassidy |first1=Jude |last2=Jones |first2=Jason D. |last3=Shaver |first3=Phillip R. |title=Contributions of attachment theory and research: A framework for future research, translation, and policy |journal=Development and Psychopathology |date=November 2013 |volume=25 |issue=4pt2 |pages=1415–1434 |doi=10.1017/S0954579413000692|pmid=24342848 |pmc=4085672 }}</ref> The attachment theory focused on the attention of the child when the mother is there and the responses that the child shows when the mother leaves, which indicated the attachment and bonding of the mother and the child. The attention therapy is done while the child is being restrained by the therapists and the responses displayed were noted. The tests were done to show the responses of the child.{{citation needed|date=March 2020}}

This may be partly due to lack of attention paid to clinical application by Bowlby himself and partly due to broader meanings of the word 'attachment' used among practitioners. It may also be partly due to the mistaken association of attachment theory with the [[pseudoscience|pseudoscientific]] interventions misleadingly known as [[attachment therapy]] or holding therapy.<ref name="Ziv">{{cite encyclopedia |year=2005 |title=Attachment-Based Intervention programs: Implications for Attachment Theory and Research |encyclopedia=Enhancing Early Attachments: Theory, Research, Intervention and Policy |publisher=Guilford Press |location=New York and London |series=Duke series in child development and public policy |page=63 |isbn=978-1-59385-470-6 | vauthors = Ziv Y |veditors=Berlin LJ, Ziv Y, Amaya-Jackson L, Greenberg MT}}</ref>

====Prevention and treatment====
{{Main|Attachment-based therapy}}

In 1988, Bowlby published a series of lectures indicating how attachment theory and research could be used in understanding and treating child and family disorders. His focus for bringing about change was the parents' internal working models, parenting behaviours and the parents' relationship with the therapeutic intervenor.<ref name="berlinetal">{{cite encyclopedia |year=2008 |title=Prevention and Intervention Programs for Supporting Early Attachment Security |encyclopedia=Handbook of Attachment: Theory, Research and Clinical Applications |publisher=Guilford Press |location=New York and London |pages=745–61 |isbn=978-1-59385-874-2 |vauthors=Berlin LJ, Zeanah CH, Lieberman AF |veditors=Cassidy J, Shaver PR}}</ref> Ongoing research has led to a number of individual treatments and prevention and intervention programs.<ref name=berlinetal/> In regards to personal development, children from all the age groups were tested to show the effectiveness of the theory that is being theorized by Bowlby. They range from individual therapy to public health programs to interventions designed for foster caregivers. For infants and younger children, the focus is on increasing the responsiveness and sensitivity of the caregiver, or if that is not possible, placing the child with a different caregiver.{{sfn|Prior|Glaser|2006|pp=231–32}}<ref name="BakermansKranenburg">{{cite journal | vauthors = Bakermans-Kranenburg MJ, van IJzendoorn MH, Juffer F | s2cid = 7504386 | title = Less is more: meta-analyses of sensitivity and attachment interventions in early childhood | url = https://archive.org/details/sim_psychological-bulletin_2003-03_129_2/page/195 | journal = Psychological Bulletin | volume = 129 | issue = 2 | pages = 195–215 | date = March 2003 | pmid = 12696839 | doi = 10.1037/0033-2909.129.2.195 }}</ref> An assessment of the attachment status or caregiving responses of the caregiver is invariably included, as attachment is a two-way process involving attachment behaviour and caregiver response. Some programs are aimed at foster cares because the attachment behaviours of infants or children with attachment difficulties often do not elicit appropriate caregiver responses. Modern prevention and intervention programs have proven successful.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Hoffman KT, Marvin RS, Cooper G, Powell B | s2cid = 6672909 | title = Changing toddlers' and preschoolers' attachment classifications: the Circle of Security intervention | url = https://archive.org/details/sim_journal-of-consulting-and-clinical-psychology_2006-12_74_6/page/1017 | journal = Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology | volume = 74 | issue = 6 | pages = 1017–26 | date = December 2006 | pmid = 17154732 | doi = 10.1037/0022-006x.74.6.1017 }}</ref>

====Reactive attachment disorder and attachment disorder====
{{Main|Reactive attachment disorder|Attachment disorder}}
One atypical attachment pattern is considered to be an actual disorder, known as ''reactive attachment disorder'' or RAD, which is a recognized psychiatric diagnosis ([[ICD-10]] F94.1/2 and [[DSM-IV-TR]] 313.89). Against common misconception, this is not the same as 'disorganized attachment'. The essential feature of reactive attachment disorder is markedly disturbed and developmentally inappropriate social relatedness in most contexts that begins before age five years, associated with gross pathological care. There are two subtypes, one reflecting a disinhibited attachment pattern, the other an inhibited pattern. RAD is not a description of insecure attachment styles, however problematic those styles may be; instead, it denotes a lack of age-appropriate attachment behaviours that may appear to resemble a clinical disorder.<ref name="Thompson (2000)">{{cite journal | vauthors = Thompson RA | s2cid = 18055255 | title = The legacy of early attachments | journal = Child Development | volume = 71 | issue = 1 | pages = 145–52 | year = 2000 | pmid = 10836568 | doi = 10.1111/1467-8624.00128 }}</ref> Although the term "reactive attachment disorder" is now popularly applied to perceived behavioural difficulties that fall outside the DSM or ICD criteria, particularly on the Web and in connection with the pseudo-scientific attachment therapy, "true" RAD is thought to be rare.<ref name="chaffin">{{cite journal | vauthors = Chaffin M, Hanson R, Saunders BE, Nichols T, Barnett D, Zeanah C, Berliner L, Egeland B, Newman E, Lyon T, LeTourneau E, Miller-Perrin C | s2cid = 11443880 | title = Report of the APSAC task force on attachment therapy, reactive attachment disorder, and attachment problems | journal = Child Maltreatment | volume = 11 | issue = 1 | pages = 76–89 | date = February 2006 | pmid = 16382093 | doi = 10.1177/1077559505283699 }}</ref>

"Attachment disorder" is an ambiguous term, which may refer to reactive attachment disorder or to the more problematic insecure attachment styles (although none of these are clinical disorders). It may also be used to refer to proposed new classification systems put forward by theorists in the field,{{sfn|Prior|Glaser|2006|pp=223–25}} and is used within attachment therapy as a form of unvalidated diagnosis.<ref name="chaffin" /> One of the proposed new classifications, "secure base distortion" has been found to be associated with caregiver traumatization.<ref name="schecter">{{cite journal | vauthors = Schechter DS, Willheim E | title = Disturbances of attachment and parental psychopathology in early childhood | journal = Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America | volume = 18 | issue = 3 | pages = 665–86 | date = July 2009 | pmid = 19486844 | pmc = 2690512 | doi = 10.1016/j.chc.2009.03.001 }}</ref>