Mental health articles

Unsecure attachment relationship is risk factor for child physical abuse and neglect Attachment to parents may be an important risk factor and may explain better than family systems theory the relationship between family dysfunction and child sexual abuse. Attachment theory was developed by Bowlby (1969, 1973, 1980) to explain relationship patterns between parents and their children. Attachment is the internal representational model of the relationship between children and their parents or attachment figures that derives from the early relationship between infant and attachment figure (Bowlby, 1988). Attachment relationships can be more or less secure, and the presence of a less secure attachment relationship has been found to be an important risk factor for child physical abuse and neglect. Indeed, almost all physically abused children and their parents are insecurely attached (Carlson, Cicchetti, Barnett, & Braunwald, 1989). The importance of attachment traverses both the microsystem and the ontogenic system. At the level of the microsystem, insecure attachment of parents may be a risk factor—for two reasons. First, parents may transmit that insecure attachment to their children, which then places their children at greater risk of sexual abuse (to be discussed in the next section). Second, insecurely attached parents may be less capable of accurately assessing dangerous situations. (See Alexander, 1992 and Bolen, 2000c for more on attachment and child sexual abuse.)

Tags: child, sexual abuse