Child Abuse and Neglect: Biosocial Dimensions - Foundations of Human Behavior by Jane B. Lancaster

Author:Jane B. Lancaster [Lancaster, Jane B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Public Policy, Political Science, General, Social Services & Welfare
ISBN: 9781351529112
Google: mtwzDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 39207630
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-09-04T00:00:00+00:00

The Concept of Attachment and Its Relationship to Child Abuse

General Considerations

Primate offspring tend to be few in number, develop slowly, and require a major parenting investment for their optimal growth and development (and thus reproductive success). Proper growth and development of young primates, human and nonhuman, requires as well an adequate species-typical social environment in which to develop as an infant and child and in which to operate as an adult. In this regard the issue of social attachment and social affiliative behaviors is most important, and this is an area about which there are some relevant primate data. While there may be considerable disagreement about “attachment” as a construct, few would argue that the bond between primate mother and infant is a very important component of maternal behavior and plays a significant role in the infant’s development.

In fact, the importance of social attachments to the normal development and integrative functioning of members of our, and closely related, species has become obvious on several levels over the past several decades. The presence of social attachments appears to be related to improved physical health and well being (Berkman and Syme, 1979). Premature or inappropriate sudden disruption of attachment bonds, in addition to being subjectively painful, may lead to psychological disturbances, physiological disorganization, and ill health (Lau-densager and Reite, 1984, see also section on consequences of early separation). Disturbances in attachment per se may result in skewed affective development and impaired parenting, including child abuse. Klein and Stern, examining the relationship between low birth weight and child abuse, suggested that “it appears likely that the enforced separation so commonly practiced in premature units contributes to abnormal maternal child relationships, including rejection, neglect, and finally, battering” (1971:17-18). To the extent that the process of attachment involves an increasing attunement and adjustment of each individual to the needs, feelings, etc., of the other, other evidence suggests that deficiencies in these abilities appear to characterize at least some forms of child abuse/neglect (Haynes, Cutler, Gray, O’Keefe, and Kempe, 1983 detailed in the next section). DeLozier (1982) has also implicated disturbances in early attachment as a significant etiological factor in subsequent child abuse and neglect. And, as summarized earlier, data from several primate laboratories support the idea that disturbances in early mother-infant attachment may be related to increased risk for subsequent infant abuse.

The question of what attachment really is (i.e., how you define it and measure it) has drawn increasing attention in the recent past, especially from those interested in studying mother-infant bonding in human and nonhuman mammals and early social-emotional development in human infants. Conceptually, attachment has been viewed from the standpoint of learning theory (Cairns, 1972), from an evolutionary perspective (Bowlby, 1969; Klaus, Trause, and Kennell, 1975; Ainsworth, 1963, 1964, 1973), from the standpoint of classical conditioning (Hoffman and Ratner, 1973), and from the viewpoint of the opponent process theory of motivation (Hoffman and Soloman, 1974). These issues and viewpoints have been reviewed by Rajecki, Lamb, and Obmascher (1978).

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