Supporting Healthy Attachments Between Parents and theirYoung Children
Healthy Families NetworkChildren’s Mental Health Series
St. Paul, MN
November 22, 2005
Martha Farrell Erickson, Ph.D., DirectorIrving B. Harris Training Programs
Center for Early Education and DevelopmentUniversity of Minnesota
E-mail: [email protected]
How does attachment developand how does it
shape later development?
Prepared by Martha Farrell Erickson, Ph.D.
Sensitive care felt security confident, connected
Prepared by Martha Farrell Erickson, Ph.D.
Secure Attachment
Samantha
Distribution ofAttachment Patterns
General Population
Among high-risk families
Prepared by Martha Farrell Erickson, Ph.D.
Securely Attached
Insecurely Attached
Insecurely Attached
Securely Attached
30%
70%
55%
45%
Anxious Resistant Attachment
Erratic carepreoccupied, hesitant
anxious, dependent
Prepared by Martha Farrell Erickson, Ph.D.
Reese
Anxious Avoidant Attachment
Unresponsive care distant, flat
aggressive, lacks empathy
Prepared by Martha Farrell Erickson, Ph.D.
Andy
Disorganized Attachment
Threat from caregiverconfused, anxious
dissociative disorders
Prepared by Martha Farrell Erickson, Ph.D.
Devon
What factors underlie parents’capacity to build a secure
attachment with their child?
Prepared by Martha Farrell Erickson, Ph.D.
Anticipating both the joys and hardships of parenting
Realistic Expectations About Becoming a Parent
Prepared by Martha Farrell Erickson, Ph.D.
• Realistic behavioral expectations
• Understanding of key developmental behaviors
• Seeing through the eyes of the child
Knowledge of Child Development
Prepared by Martha Farrell Erickson, Ph.D.
• Formal resources
• Informal resources
• Skills and confidence to access those resources
Social Support
Prepared by Martha Farrell Erickson, Ph.D.
• Early relationships with parents and other caregivers
• How the person has come to think about that history (“state of mind” about remembered attachment)
Relationship History
Prepared by Martha Farrell Erickson, Ph.D.
Link Between Parental State of Mind and Parent-Infant Attachment
Adult Attachment Strange SituationInterview (AAI)
Secure-autonomous Secure Dismissing Avoidant Preoccupied Anxious-Resistant Unresolved Disorganized
Prepared by Martha Farrell Erickson, Ph.D.
• Face the pain
• Acknowledge its ongoing influence
• Arrive at an understanding of why caregivers behaved as they did
• Identify what to repeat and what not to repeat from the past
• Muster all available resources to help you live out those choices
Healthy Resolution(Secure-autonomous state of mind)
Prepared by Martha Farrell Erickson, Ph.D.
What can we do to support the
development of secure attachment between parents
and children?
Prepared by Martha Farrell Erickson, Ph.D.
Looking Back, Moving Forward: A Group Exercise
• Discuss messages you experienced in childhood
• Tear up those you wish you had not received
• Focus on positive messages you want to carry forward
• Practice those messages during parent-infant interaction time
Prepared by Martha Farrell Erickson, Ph.D.
Relationship as a vehicle for change:
• Be a secure base; contradict “working models”
• Reframe the person’s response
• Reflect on experience, coping and adaptation.
Prepared by Martha Farrell Erickson, Ph.D.