Separation and Reunification: Using
Attachment Theory and Research to
Inform Decisions Affecting the
Placement of Children in Foster Care
David Oppenheim, Ph.D.
University of Haifa, Israel
Douglas Goldsmith, Ph.D.
The Children’s Center, SLC, UT
Plan for today
 Introduction and basic principles of
attachment theory
 One child’s story of attachment,
separation, loss – and attachment
 Misapplication of Attachment principles in:
Theory
Assessment
Intervention
Attachment Theory
 Formulated by John Bowlby and Mary
Ainsworth to account for the impact of
early separation and trauma on the child
 Has revolutionized our views of
development, psychopathology, and clinical
work
 Is the most prominent theory today
regarding early socio-emotional
development
Attachment Theory
 Is empirically based and supported by
research
 Is particularly useful in thinking about
permanency issues
Basic Principles:
Forming Attachments
 The child is highly motivated from birth to
form and maintain attachments to a few
caregivers
 Attachment has survival value
 Children will do whatever is necessary to
maintain their attachments and to achieve
security
 The baby uses the attachment figure as a
“secure base”
Cooper, Hoffman, Marvin &Powell , 2000
More basic principles:
Attachment Security
 Attachment figures become “psychological
parents”.
 All babies attach but the security of the
attachment depends on the caregivers
responses to the child
 Sensitivity: Reading the infant’s signals
accurately and responding to them
appropriately
 Insightfulness: Seeing things from the
child’s point of view; empathic
understanding of the child’s experience
Cooper, Hoffman, Marvin &Powell , 2000
Cooper, Hoffman, Marvin &Powell , 2000
Attachment:
Infancy and Beyond
 Early attachments lay the groundwork for
later development
 Children form Internal Working Models of
their attachment relationships
 The legacy of early attachment is
reflected in children’s relationships with
others, self-regulation, emotional openness.
Separations from attachment figures
 Are challenging for young children – and
for all of us!
 The child experiences separation as a
threat to the availability of the secure
base.
 The degree of challenge will depend on the
degree of threat
 Often involves separation not only from
the parent but from everything familiar
Separations
 Strong reactions will occur when separating
from nurturant parents - but also from
abusive parents!
 Under certain conditions separations can
be traumatic and have devastating
consequences.
Separation reactions
Follow the sequence of
 Protest (anxiety, anger)
 Despair (sadness, withdrawal)
 “Detachment” (recovery, renewed interest
in the world).
The Case of Sara
 Placed for adoption upon discharge
from the hospital
 5 months of age legal adoption is not
completed
 Sara enjoys a loving relationship with
her parents
 The parent child relationship is
marked by reliable, emotionally
attuned, and responsive care
The Case of Sara
 Allegations of neglect arise
 Sara is removed from the home at
the age of 10 months
The Case of Sara
Shelter home for four days
Second foster home for one week
Third foster home for eight weeks
Adoptive home
The Case of Sara
 Upon arrival to the adoptive home
Sara stares blankly, refuses social
interaction, and is oblivious to pain
after undergoing a medical procedure
 Believing that Sara is available for
adoption her name is changed
The Case of Sara
 At the age of 15 months Sara is
responding well to her new
environment
 First adoptive family hasn’t seen her
for 6 months and want her returned
to their care
The Case of Sara
 Should she return?
 Who are the “psychological” parents?
 Does she remember her first
adoptive parents?
 She’s so young that she won’t
remember anything and can be
returned without distress
 Sara is a “resilient” child
The Case of Sara
 The internal working model – viewing
the world through Sara’s eyes
 Assessing “risk”
 Could reunion reactivate feelings of
loss?
 Utilization of second adoptive
parents as a secure base
 Impact of no contact
Common misunderstandings:
Theory
 There is a critical period in which
attachments are formed.
Early childhood is critical, but there is no
point when security cannot be damaged
 A secure attachment provides “inoculation”
Secure attachments serve as buffers, not
inoculations
Common misunderstandings:
Theory
 Secure children are resilient and therefore
can be separated
Resilience involves a relationship between the
child and the environment; it is not a fixed
trait “in” the child
 Security or insecurity are personality
traits.
Security is a property of a relationship, not a
child
Common misunderstandings:
Theory
 We can predict children’s development
based on their early attachments
Developmental predictions are probabilistic.
The balance between risk and protective
factors is key.
Common misunderstandings:
Theory
 Children do not become attached to maltreating
parents (or can easily detach from them)
Children attach to maltreating parents and
separation will be experienced as a loss
Removal must always be seen as a last resort; focus
on repair of the caregiving relationship
 Children’s relationships with their mothers are the
most important
Children can develop attachments to several
caregivers
Common misunderstandings:
Theory
 Children do not have memories of their
early years, and therefore they do not
have lasting impact.
Children do not have declarative memories
but may have procedural memories encoded
in their IWMs
Common misunderstandings:
Observational Assessment
 An observation in the office or at home can be
used to assess the child’s attachment
Contexts that are not stressful may reveal very
little about the child’s attachment
Casual observations of untrained observers, without
the aid of video, and in unstructured situations are
of very limited use
 Pleasurable play is an expression of a secure
attachment
Attachment is most apparent in stressful situations
Common misunderstandings:
Observational Assessment
 Clinging or seeking closeness is an
expression of a secure attachment
If desperate, children will cling even to
complete strangers, but they will not serve
as a secure base
 Conflict is an expression of an insecure
attachment
Conflicts are integral to healthy
relationships; the issue is their negotiation
Common misunderstandings:
Observational Assessment
 Protest during separation is an expression of an
insecure attachment (or, conversely, of a secure
attachment).
Protest during separation indicates that an
attachment bond exists; it tells us little about the
child’s security
 Ignoring the caregiver, particularly upon reunion,
is a sign of non-attachment (conversely, is
“normal”)
Avoidant children are attached to their caregivers;
the avoidance indicates insecurity, particularly
experiences of rejection
Common misunderstandings:
Assessment
 A secure child has secure relationships with
everyone
Children can have different attachments to
different caregivers
 Strong emotional and behavioral reactions before
or after a visit with the birth mother are
indications of maltreatment by the birth mother
or insecure attachment to the foster parents.
These kind of reactions are expected separations
reactions and tell us little about the child’s
experience
Common misunderstandings:
Assessment
 Separations and reunions are the only
contexts in which attachment can be
assessed
May be not very stressful for older children;
the issue is activation of the attachment
system
 We know how to perform a “Bonding
Assessment”
We don’t! And what does “bonding” have to
do with it anyway?
Common misunderstandings:
Intervention
 Children do not develop attachments to
foster mothers
Children develop attachments to their foster
mothers, and their quality depends on the
care the mother provides
 The intuitive capacities of foster mothers
are sufficient
“Normally” sensitive mothers often need
special help when providing care to foster
children
Common misunderstandings:
Intervention
 Intervention can help children in periods when
placement has not yet been determined
It is extremely difficult to implement
psychotherapeutic interventions when the child’s
fate is uncertain
 Problems in the relationships between foster
children and their parents are due to faulty
parenting/damaged children.
Problems are products of relationships, and the key
involves helping develop a good “fit”
Common misunderstandings:
Intervention
 Reminders of the birth mother are
distressing; therefore they should be
avoided (context: short separations)
We should think of what promotes the child’s
confidence in the continued availability of
the “secure base”
Common misunderstandings:
Intervention
 Children who do not speak do not
understand language. Therefore, talking
with them about the transitions they are
experiencing is useless (and changing their
name is insignificant).
Expressive language lags behind receptive
language; children understand much more
than they can express