Attachment, Stress, and Psychopathology: A Developmental Pathways Model

This chapter commences with a summary of Bowlby's thinking about attachment and developmental pathways. It discusses research on attachment and psychopathology as framed by three levels of analysis: attachment organization, caregiving quality, and caregiving context. The chapter begins commences the review at the individual level of attachment organization and considers how attachment insecurity and disorganization create risk for psychopathology. Then, the chapter presents studies that examine the risk for psychopathology at the level of caregiving quality. These risk factors range from insensitive care, to frightened or frightening behaviors, to attachment disruptions and abusive parenting. Then, the chapter considers risk for psychopathology at the level of the caregiving context. It also describes different approaches to modeling the ongoing transactions among attachment, caregiving quality, and contextual risk. Finally, the chapter uses the developmental pathways model in conjunction with consideration of levels of analysis to point to important areas for further research.