What is it about?
This study demonstrates that school-aged children's attachment strategies are closely related to mothers' strategies, although often mothers and children use opposite A (inhibitory) versus C (expressive) strategies. If treatment is needed, including the mother and knowing both attachment strategies will be important.
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Why is it important?
This study adds needed complexity, in clinical cases, to the more common (but possibly too simplistic) hypothesis of mother-child matches. It also suggests the continuing importance of mothers during the school years - when troubled children are often diagnosed and treated as individuals.
Perspectives
I think helpful clinical work requires much more precision and complexity of formulation than is currently vogue. I hope this paper helps to demonstrate why more precision and breadth (the inclusion of mothers and, probably fathers too) is needed when evaluating school-aged children.
Patricia Crittenden
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Are mothers’ protective attachment strategies related to their children’s strategies?, Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, April 2017, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/1359104517704027.
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