https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1460-2371
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Peter W Choate, Reassessing Attachment Theory in Child Welfare, Sue White, Matthew Gibson, David Wasatell and Patricia Walsh, The British Journal of Social Work, Volume 50, Issue 5, July 2020, Pages 1641–1643, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcz166
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Attachment Theory (AT) has played a central role in how parents and their relationship with their children are assessed. It impacts the placement of children, decisions of the courts and long-term planning for the child. These are amongst the conclusions of this slim volume that challenges the conversation regarding the linkages between the theory and child welfare practice. The authors illustrate that the AT phenomenon is not unique to the UK but has impacts throughout the Western world.
The authors start the reader off on a journey of re-evaluation of AT by laying out the foundations, belief structures, ecological context and methods through which it was developed. The opening chapter is vital to all practitioners linking AT to a time and place, particularly England, when family was intellectually and socially constructed with a ‘synthesis of object relations theory and ethological development psychology’ (p. 2). The authors take us through the experiments that were used to advance the theory, including the work of Mary Salter Ainsworth who joined pioneers John Bowlby, mainly credited with the theory, and James Robertson, a social worker who studied the impact of separating children from their mothers in hospital.
