Citation

Cyr C, Alink LRA. Curr. Opin. Psychol. 2017; 15: 81-86.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.02.002

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Child maltreatment has devastating consequences for children. In this review, using an ecological-transactional perspective, we argue that the child-parent attachment relationship is at the core of preventing and stopping maltreatment, and improving child developmental outcomes. Hence, we suggest that attachment-based interventions should be prioritized with this vulnerable population. We also underscore the need to improve parenting capacity assessments (PCA), as conducted by child protective agencies, to orient interventions and decisions about child placement. Today, a lack of knowledge exists in this area, especially with regard to parental capacity to change. We argue that parental capacity to change, in particular the capacity to become more sensitive to the child's needs, should be one central focus of PCAs and that an attachment framework can be used to assess and document this specific change. At the forefront of a next generation of studies, a recent study is now showing that a short-term attachment-based intervention aiming to change the quality of the parent-child relationship is a valuable tool to improve child placement decisions.

Language: en