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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attachment disorder | 1/5 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attachment_disorder | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T15:31:26.558585+00:00 | kb-cron |
Attachment disorders are disorders of mood, behavior, and social relationships arising from unavailability of normal socializing care and attention from primary caregiving figures in early childhood. Such a failure would result from unusual early experiences of neglect, abuse, abrupt separation from caregivers between three months and three years of age, frequent change or excessive numbers of caregivers, or lack of caregiver responsiveness to child communicative efforts resulting in a lack of basic trust. A problematic history of social relationships occurring after about age three may be distressing to a child, but does not result in attachment disorder.
== Attachment and attachment disorder ==
Attachment theory is primarily an evolutionary and ethological theory. In relation to infants, it primarily consists of proximity seeking to an attachment figure in the face of threat, for the purpose of survival. Although an attachment is a "tie", it is not synonymous with love and affection, despite their often going together; a healthy attachment is considered an important foundation of all subsequent relationships. Infants become attached to adults who are sensitive and responsive in social interactions with the infant, and who remain consistent caregivers for some time. Parental responses lead to the development of patterns of attachment which in turn lead to "internal working models" that guide one's feelings, thoughts, and expectations in later relationships. A fundamental aspect of attachment is called basic trust. Basic trust is a broader concept than attachment in that it extends beyond the infant-caregiver relationship to "the wider social network of trustable and caring others" and "links confidence about the past with faith about the future". "Erikson argues that the sense of trust in oneself and others is the foundation of human development" and with a balance of mistrust produces hope. In the clinical sense, a disorder is a condition requiring treatment as opposed to risk factors for subsequent disorders. There is a lack of consensus about the precise meaning of the term "attachment disorder", but there is general agreement that such disorders arise only after early adverse caregiving experiences. Reactive attachment disorder (RAD) indicates the absence of either or both the main aspects of proximity seeking to an identified attachment figure. This can occur in institutions, with repeated changes of caregiver, or from extremely neglectful primary caregivers who show persistent disregard for a child's basic attachment needs after the age of 6 months. Current official classifications of RAD under DSM-IV-TR and ICD-10 are largely based on this understanding of the nature of attachment. The words attachment style or pattern refer to the various types of attachment arising from early care experiences, called secure, anxious-ambivalent, anxious-avoidant, (all organized), and disorganized. Some of these styles are more problematic than others, and, although they are not disorders in the clinical sense, are sometimes discussed under the term 'attachment disorder'. Discussion of the disorganized attachment style sometimes includes it under the rubric of attachment disorders because disorganized attachment is seen as the beginning of a developmental trajectory that takes a person ever further from the normal range, culminating in actual disorders of thought, behavior, or mood. Early intervention for disorganized attachment, or other problematic styles, is directed toward changing the trajectory of development to provide a better outcome later in life. Zeanah and colleagues proposed an alternative set of criteria (see below) of three categories of attachment disorder, namely "no discriminated attachment figure", "secure base distortions" and "disrupted attachment disorder". These classifications consider a disorder a variation that requires treatment rather than an individual difference within the normal range.