In recent years, attachment theory has been used more frequently for understanding abuse and violence. Yet, conceptualizations of these problems presuppose that attachment theory is valid. By reviewing the empirical literature on attachment theory to determine whether its key hypotheses are supported, this article addresses this important assumption. Hypotheses of attachment theory that are addressed are that attachment (a) has a biological or physiological base, (b) is universal, (c) is intergenerationally transmitted, (d) is transmitted from caregiver to infant, and (e) is predictive and dynamic but largely stable across time. Although all the hypotheses have some empirical support, and meta-analyses of certain of these hypotheses are encouraging, there are contradictory findings. At this time, support for attachment theory remains equivocal, and the limits of the theory are not clearly defined. Although these limitations do not preclude its use in trauma literature, professionals must remain aware of these limitations.
Aber, J. L.
, & Allen, J. P. (1987). Effects of maltreatment on young children's socioemotional development: An attachment theory perspective. Developmental Psychology, 23, 406-414.
2.
Ainsworth, M.D.S.
, Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
3.
Alexander, P. C.
(1992). Application of attachment theory to the study of sexual abuse. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 60, 185-195.
4.
Arend, R.
, Gove, F. L., & Sroufe, L. A. (1979). Continuity of individual adaptation from infancy to kindergarten: A predictive study of ego-resiliency and curiosity in pre-schoolers. Child Development, 50, 950-959.
5.
Baldwin, M. W.
, & Fehr, B. (1995). On the instability of attachment style ratings. Personal Relationships, 2, 247-261.
6.
Barach, P.M.M.
(1991). Multiple personality disorder as an attachment disorder. Dissociation, 4, 117-123.
7.
Bartholomew, K.
, & Horowitz, L. M. (1991). Attachment styles among young adults: A test of a four-category model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61, 236-244.
8.
Belsky, J.
, Rosenberger, K., & Crnic, K. (1995). The origins of attachment security: “Classical” and contextual determinants. In S. Goldberg, R. Muir, & J. Keer (Eds.), Attachment theory: Social, developmental, and clinical perspectives (pp. 153-183). Hillsdale, NJ: Analytic Press.
9.
Belsky, J.
, & Rovine, M. (1987). Temperament and attachment security in the Strange Situation. An empirical rapprochement. Child Development, 58, 787-795.
10.
Belsky, J.
, Rovine, M., & Taylor, D. G. (1984). The Pennsylvania infant and family development project, III: The origins of individual differences in infant-mother attachment: Maternal and infant contributions. Child Development, 55, 718-728.
11.
Benoit, D.
, & Parker, K.C.H. (1994). Stability and transmission of attachment across three generations. Child Development, 65, 1444-1456.
12.
Bolen, R. M. (1998). Development of an ecological/transactional model of sexual abuse victimization and analysis of its nomological classification system. Dissertation Abstracts International, 59(9), 3645. (University Microfilms No. 9904160)
13.
Bowlby, J.
(1969). Attachment. New York: Basic Books.
14.
Bowlby, J.
(1973). Separation. New York: Basic Books.
15.
Bowlby, J.
(1980). Loss. New York: Basic Books.
16.
Bowlby, J.
(1988). A secure base: Parent-child attachment and healthy human development. New York: Basic.
17.
Bretherton, I.
(1985). Attachment theory: Retrospect and prospect. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50(S1-S2, Serial No. 209).
18.
Bretherton, J.
(1990). Communication patterns, internal working models, and the intergenerational transmission of attachment relationships. Infant Mental Health Journal, 11, 237-252.
19.
Bretherton, J.
, & Waters, E. (1985). Growing points of attachment theory and research. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50(S1-S2, Serial No. 209).
20.
Calkins, S. D.
, & Fox, N. A. (1994). Individual differences in the biological aspects of temperament. In J. E. Bates & T. D. Wachs (Eds.), Temperament: Individual differences at the interface of biology and behavior (pp. 199-217). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
21.
Carlson, V.
, Cicchetti, D., Barnett, D., & Braunwald, K. (1989). Disorganized/disoriented attachment relationships in maltreatment infants. Developmental Psychology, 25, 525-531.
22.
Cassidy, J.
, & Berlin, L. J. (1994). The insecure/ambivalent pattern of attachment: Theory and research. Child Development, 65, 971-991.
23.
Cassidy, J.
, & Kobak, R. R. (1988). Avoidance and its relation to other defensive processes. In J. Belsky & T. Nazworski (Eds.), Clinical implications of attachment (pp. 300-323). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
24.
Cicchetti, D.
, Toth, S. L., & Lynch, M. (1995). Bowlby's dream comes full circle: The application of attachment theory to risk and psychopathology. Advances in Clinical Child Psychology, 17, 1-75.
25.
Crittenden, P. M.
(1990). Internal representational models of attachment theory. Infant Mental Health Journal, 11, 259-277.
26.
Crittenden, P. M.
(1992). Children's strategies for coping with adverse home environments: An interpretation using attachment theory. Child Abuse and Neglect, 16, 329-343.
27.
Crittenden, P. M.
, & Ainsworth, M.D.S. (1989). Child maltreatment and attachment theory. In D. Cicchetti & V. Carlson (Eds.), Child maltreatment: Theory and research on the causes and consequences of child abuse and neglect (pp. 423-463). Cambridge, NY: Cambridge University Press.
28.
Das Eiden, B.
, Teti, D. M., & Corns, K. M. (1995). Maternal working models of attachment, marital adjustment, and the parent-child relationship. Child Development, 66, 1504-1518.
29.
Dontas, C.
, Maratos, O., Fafoutis, M., & Karangelis, A. (1985). Early social development in institutionally reared Greek infants: Attachment and peer interaction. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50(S1-S2, Serial No. 209).
30.
Dozier, M.
, & Kobak, R. R. (1992). Psychophysiology in attachment interviews: Converging evidence for deactivating strategies. Child Development, 63, 1473-1480.
31.
Dutton, D. G.
, Saunders, K., Starzomski, A., & Bartholomew, K. (1994). Intimacy-anger and insecure attachment as precursors of abuse in intimate relationships. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 24, 1367-1386.
32.
Egeland, B.
, & Farber, E. A. (1984). Infant-mother attachment: Factors related to its developoment and changes over time. Child Development, 55, 753-771.
33.
Egeland, B.
, & Sroufe, L. A. (1981). Attachment and maltreatment. Child Development, 52, 44-52.
34.
El-Guebaly, N.
, West, M., Maticka-Tyndale, E., & Pool, M. (1993). Attachment among adult children of alcoholics. Addiction, 88, 1405-1411.
35.
Elicker, J.
, Englund, M., & Sroufe, L. A. (1992). Predicting peer competence and peer relationships in childhood from early parent-child relationships. In R. Parke & G. Ladd (Eds.), Family-peer relations: Modes of linkage (pp. 77-106). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
36.
Feeney, B. C.
, & Kirkpatrick, L. A. (1996). Effects of adult attachment and presence of romantic partners on physiological responses to stress. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 255-270.
37.
Fish, M.
, & Belsky, J. (1991). Temperament and attachment revisited: Origin and meaning of separation intolerance at age three. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 6, 418-427.
38.
Fonagy, P.
, Leigh, T., Steele, M., Steele, H., Kennedy, R., Mattoon, G., Target, M., & Gerber, A. (1996). The relationship between attachment status, psychiatric classification, and response to psychotherapy. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 64, 22-31.
39.
Fox, N. A.
(1995). Of the way we were: Adult memories about attachment experiences and their role in determining infant-parent relationships: A commentary on van IJzendoorn (1995). Psychological Bulletin, 177, 404-410.
40.
Fox, N. A.
, Kimmerly, N. L., & Schafer, W. D. (1991). Attachment to mother/attachment to father: A meta-analysis. Child Development, 62, 210-225.
41.
Freund, K.
, Watson, R., & Dickey, R. (1990). Does sexual abuse in childhood cause pedophilia: An exploratory study. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 19, 557-568.
42.
Ginsburg, H.
, Wright, L. S., Harrell, P. M., & Hill, D. W. (1989). Childhood victimization: Desensitization effects in the later lifespan. Child Psychiatry & Human Development, 20, 59-71.
43.
Goldberg, S.
(1991). Recent developments in attachment theory and research. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 36, 393-400.
44.
Goldsmith, H. H.
, & Alansky, J. A. (1987). Maternal and infant temperamental predictors of attachment: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 55, 805-816.
45.
Greenberg, M. T.
, Speltz, M. L., & DeKlyen, M. (1993). The role of attachment in the early development of disruptive behavior problems. Development and Psychopathology, 5, 191-213.
46.
Grossmann, K. E.
, & Grossmann, K. (1990). The wider concept of attachment in cross-cultural research. Human Development, 33, 31-47.
47.
Grossmann, K. E.
, & Grossmann, K. (1991). Attachment quality as an organizer of emotional and behavioral responses in a longitudinal perspective. In C. M. Parkes, J. Stevenson-Hinde, & P. Marrie (Eds.), Attachment across the life cycle (pp. 93-114). London: Tavistock/Routledge.
48.
Gunnar, M. R.
, Larson, M. C., Hertsgaard, L., Harris, M. L., & Brodersen, L. (1992). The stressfulness of separation among nine-month-old infants: Effects of social context variables and infant temperament. Child Development, 63, 290-303.
49.
Gunnar, M. R.
, Mangelsdorf, S., Larson, M. C., & Hertsgaard, L. (1989). Attachment, temperament, and adrenocortical activity in infancy: A study of psychoendocrine regulation. Developmental Psychology, 25, 355-363.
50.
Hazan, C.
, & Shaver, P. (1987). Romantic love conceptualized as an attachment process. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 511-524.
51.
Henderson, A.J.Z.
, Bartholomew, K., & Dutton, D. G. (1997). He loves me; he loves me not: Attachment and separation resolution of abused women. Journal of Family Violence, 12, 169-191.
52.
Hertsgaard, L.
, Gunnar, M., Erickson, M. F., & Nachmias, M. (1995). Child Development, 66, 1100-1106.
53.
Hofer, M. A.
(1995). Hidden regulators: Implications for a new understanding of attachment, separation, and loss. In S. Goldberg, R. Muir, & J. Kerr (Eds.), Attachment theory: Social, developmental, and clinical perspectives (pp. 203-230). Hillsdale, NJ: Analytic Press.
54.
Izard, C. E.
, Porges, S. W., Simons, R. F., Haynes, O. M., Hyde, C., Parisi, M., & Cohen, B. (1991). Infant cardiac activity: Developmental changes and relations with attachment. Developmental Psychology, 27, 432-439.
55.
Kesner, J. E.
, Julian, T., & McKenry, P. C. (1997). Application of attachment theory to male violence toward female intimates. Journal of Family Violence, 12, 211-228.
56.
Kobak, R. R.
, & Hazan, C. (1991). Attachment in marriage: Effects of security and accuracy of working models. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 861-869.
57.
Kochanska, G.
(1995). Children's temperament, mothers' discipline, and security of attachment: Multiple pathways to emerging internalization. Child Development, 66, 597-615.
58.
Kraemer, G. W.
(1992). A psychobiological theory of attachment. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 15, 493-541.
59.
Lamb, M. E.
(1987). Predictive implications of individual differences in attachment. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 55, 817-824.
60.
Lamb, M. E.
, Thompson, R. A., Gardner, W., & Charnov, E. L. (1985). Infant-mother attachment: The origins and developmental significance of individual differences in strange situation behavior. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
61.
LeVine, R. A.
, & Miller, P. M. (1990). Commentary. Human Development, 33, 73-80.
62.
Liotti, G.
(1995). Disorganized/disoriented attachment in the psychotherapy of dissociative disorders. In S. Goldberg, R. Muir, & J. Kerr (Eds.), Attachment theory: Social, developmental, and clinical perspectives (pp. 343-363). Hillsdale, NJ: Analytic Press.
63.
Lynch, M.
, & Cicchetti, D. (1991). Patterns of relatedness in maltreated and nonmaltreated children: Connections among multiple representational models. Development and Psychopathology, 3, 207-226.
64.
Lyons-Ruth, K.
, Connell, D. B., Zoll, D., & Stahl, J. (1987). Infants at social risk: Relations among infant maltreatment, maternal behavior, and infant attachment behavior. Developmental Psychology, 23, 223-232.
65.
Main, M.
, & Cassidy, J. (1988). Categories of response to reunion with the parents at age 6: Predictable from infant attachment classifications and stable over a 1-month period. Developmental Psychology, 24, 415-426.
66.
Main, M.
, & Hesse, E. (1990). Parents' unresolved traumatic experiences are related to infant disorganized attachment status: Is frightened and/or frightening parental behavior the linking mechanism? In M. T. Greenberg, D. Cicchetti, & E. M. Cummings (Eds.), Attachment in the preschool years (pp. 161-182). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
67.
Main, M.
, Kaplan, N., & Cassidy, J. (1985). Security in infancy, childhood and adulthood: A move to the level of representation. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50(S1-S2, Serial No. 209).
68.
Main, M.
, & Solomon, J. (1986). Discovery of an insecure disorganized/disoriented attachment pattern. In T. B. Brazelton & M. W. Yogman (Eds.), Affective development in infancy (pp. 95-124). Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishers.
69.
Marshall, W. L.
, Hudson, S. M., & Hodkinson, S. (1993). The importance of attachment bonds in the development of juvenile sex offending. In H. E. Barbaree, W. L. Marshall, & S. M. Hudson (Eds.), The juvenile sex offender (pp. 164-181). New York: Guilford.
70.
Matas, L.
, Arend, R., & Sroufe, L. A. (1978). Continuity of adaptation in the second year: The relationship between quality of attachment and later competence. Child Development, 52, 932-940.
71.
Pastor, D. L.
(1981). The quality of mother-infant attachment and its relationship to toddlers' initial sociability with peers. Developmental Psychology, 17, 326-335.
72.
Paterson, R. J.
, & Moran, G. (1988). Attachment theory, personality development, and psychotherapy. Clinical Psychology Review, 8, 611-636.
73.
Pearson, J. L.
, Cohn, D. A., Cowan, P. A., & Cowan, C. P. (1994). Earned- and continuous-security in adult attachment: Relation to depressive symptomatology and parenting style. Development and Psychopathology, 6, 359-373.
74.
Perry, B. D.
, Polland, R. A., Blakley, T. L., Baker, W. L., & Vigilante, D. (1995). Childhood trauma, the neurobiology of adaptation, and “use-dependent” development of the brain: How “states” become “traits.”Infant Mental Health Journal, 16, 271-291.
75.
Phelps, J. L.
, Belsky, J., & Crnic, K. (1998). Earned security, daily stress, and parenting: A comparison of five alternative models. Development and Psychopathology, 10, 21-38.
76.
Putnam, F. W.
(1995). Development of dissociative disorders. In D. Cicchetti & D. J. Cohen (Eds.), Developmental psychopathology: Vol. 2. Risk, disorder, and adaptation (pp. 581-608). New York: John Wiley.
77.
Reite, M.
, & Boccia, M. L. (1994). Physiological aspects of adult attachment. In M. B. Sperling & W. H. Berman (Eds.), Attachment in adults: Clinical and developmental perspectives (pp. 98-127). New York: Guilford.
78.
Renken, B.
, Egeland, B., Marvinney, D., Mangelsdorf, S., & Sroufe, L. A. (1989). Early childhood antecedents of aggression and passive-withdrawal in early elementary school. Journal of Personality, 57, 257-281.
79.
Roggman, L. A.
, Langlois, J. H., Hubbs-Tait, L., & Rieser-Danner, L. A. (1994). Infant day-care, attachment, and the “file drawer problem.”Child Development, 65, 1429-1443.
80.
Rothbard, J. C.
, & Shaver, P. R. (1994). Continuity of attachment across the life span. In M. B. Sperling & W. H. Berman (Eds.), Attachment in adults: Clinical and developmental perspectives (pp. 31-71). New York: Guilford.
81.
Sable, P.
(1997). Attachment, detachment and borderline personality disorder. Psychotherapy, 34, 171-181.
82.
Sagi, A.
(1990). Attachment theory and research from a cross-cultural perspective. Human Development, 33, 10-22.
83.
Sagi, A.
, van IJzendoorn, M. H., & Koren-Karie, N. (1991). Primary appraisal of the Strange Situation: A cross-cultural analysis of preseparation episodes. Developmental Psychology, 27, 587-596.
84.
Salzman, J. P.
, Salzman, C., & Wolfson, A. N. (1997). Relationship of childhood abuse and maternal attachment to the development of borderline personality disorder. In M. C. Zanarini (Ed.), Role of sexual abuse in the etiology of borderline personality disorder (pp. 71-92). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press.
85.
Schieche, M.
, & Spangler, G. (1994). Biobehavioral organization in one-year-olds: Quality of mother-infant attachment and immunological and adrenocortical regulation. Psychologische Beitrage, 36, 30-35.
86.
Schore, A. N.
(1996). The experience-dependent maturation of a regulatory system in the orbital prefrontal cortex and the origin of developmental psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology, 8, 59-87.
87.
Schore, A. N.
(1998). Affect regulation and the origin of the self. The neurobiology of emotional development. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
88.
Spangler, G.
, & Grossmann, K. E. (1993). Biobehavioral organization in securely and insecurely attached infants. Child Development, 64, 1439-1450.
89.
Sroufe, L. A.
(1985). Attachment classification from the perspective of infant-caregiver relationships and infant temperament. Child Development, 56, 1-14.
90.
Sroufe, L. A.
, Carlson, E., & Schulman, S. (1993). Individuals in relationships: Development from infancy through adolescence. In D. Funder, R. Parke, C. Tomlinson-Keasey, & K. Widaman (Eds.), Studying lives through time (pp. 315-342). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
91.
Sroufe, L. A.
, Egeland, B., & Kreutzer, T. (1990). The fate of early experience following developmental change: Longitudinal approaches to individual adaptation in childhood. Child Development, 61, 1363-1373.
92.
Sroufe, L. A.
, & Fleeson, J. (1986). Attachment and the construction of relationships. In W. W. Hartup & Z. Rubin (Eds.), Relationships and development (pp. 51-71). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
93.
Stern, D.
(1985). The interpersonal world of the infant. New York: Basic Books.
94.
Stevenson-Hinde, J.
(1990). Attachment within family systems: An overview. Infant Mental Health Journal, 11, 218-227.
95.
Takahashi, K.
(1990). Are the key assumptions of the “Strange Situation” procedure universal? A view from Japanese research. Human Development, 33, 23-30.
96.
Thompson, R. A.
, Lamb, M. E., & Estes, E. (1982). Stability of infant-mother attachment and its relationship to changing life circumstances in an unselected middle class sample. Child Development, 53, 144-148.
97.
Troy, M.
, & Sroufe, L. A. (1987). Victimization among preschoolers: Role of attachment relationship history. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 26, 166-172.
98.
Urban, J.
, Carlson, E., Egeland, B., & Sroufe, L. A. (1991). Patterns of individual adaptation across childhood. Development and Psychopathology, 3, 445-460.
99.
van IJzendoorn, M. H.
(1990). Developments in cross-cultural research on attachment. Some methodological notes. Human Development, 33, 3-9.
100.
van IJzendoorn, M. H.
(1995a). Adult attachment representations, parental responsiveness, and infant attachment: A meta-analysis on the predictive validity of the Adult Attachment Interview. Psychological Bulletin, 117, 387-403.
101.
van IJzendoorn, M. H.
(1995b). On the way we were: On temperament, attachment, and the transmission gap. A rejoinder to Fox. Psychological Bulletin, 117, 411-415.
102.
van IJzendoorn, M. H.
, & Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J. (1996). Attachment representations in mothers, fathers, adolescents, and clinical groups: A meta-analytic search for normative data. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 64, 8-21.
103.
van IJzendoorn, M. H.
, Goldberg, S., Kroonenberg, P. M., & Frenkel, O. J. (1992). The relative effects of maternal and child problems on the quality of attachment: A meta-analysis of attachment in clinical samples. Child Development, 63, 840-858.
104.
van IJzendoorn, M. H.
, & Kroonenberg, P. M. (1988). Cross-cultural patterns of attachment: A meta-analysis of the Strange Situation. Child Development, 59, 147-156.
105.
Vaughn, B. E.
, Egeland, B., Sroufe, L. A., & Waters, E. (1979). Individual differences in infant-mother attachment at 12 and 18 months: Stability and change in families under stress. Child Development, 50, 971-975.
106.
Vaughn, B. E.
, Stevenson-Hinde, J., Waters, E., Kotsaftis, A., Lefever, G. B., Shouldice, A., Trudel, M., & Belsky, J. (1992). Attachment security and temperament in infancy and early childhood: Some conceptual clarifications. Developmental Psychology, 28, 463-473.
107.
Ward, M. J.
, & Carlson, E. A. (1995). Associations among adult attachment representations, maternal sensitivity, and infant-mother attachment in a sample of adolescent mothers. Child Development, 66, 69-79.
108.
Wartner, U. G.
, Grossmann, K., Fremmer-Bombik, E., & Suess, G. (1994). Attachment patterns at age six in South Germany: Predictability from infancy and implications for preschool behavior. Child Development, 65, 1014-1027.
109.
Waters, E.
, & Deane, K. E. (1985). Defining and assessing individual differences in attachment relationships: Q-methodology and the organization of behavior in infancy and early childhood. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50(S1-S2, Serial No. 209).
110.
Waters, E.
, Wippman, J., & Sroufe, L. A. (1979). Attachment, positive affect, and competence in the peer group: Two studies in construct validation. Child Development, 50, 821-829.
111.
Widom, C. S.
(1988). Sampling biases and implications for child abuse research. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 58, 260-270.
