Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33427578›Full record

ArticleAttachment & human development2022

Attachment goes to court: child protection and custody issues.

Tommie Forslund, Pehr Granqvist, Marinus H van IJzendoorn, Avi Sagi-Schwartz, Danya Glaser, Miriam Steele, Mårten Hammarlund, Carlo Schuengel, Marian J Bakermans-Kranenburg, Howard Steele and 60 more

Abstract readConsensus Statement
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Attachment & human development, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
16citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

16 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Review
  2. Article
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  7. Review
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  9. Attachment and the (mis)apprehension of Aboriginal children: epistemic violence in child welfare interventions.Psychiatry, psychology, and law : an interdisciplinary journal of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Psychiatry, Psychology and Law · 2025
    Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Child Welfare Reform: A Scoping Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022
    Article
  14. Attachment Theory: A Barrier for Indigenous Children Involved with Child Protection.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022
    Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

70 authors.

Tommie ForslundDepartment of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.ORCID 0000-0002-5519-9956
Pehr GranqvistDepartment of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.ORCID 0000-0003-0747-5028
Marinus H van IJzendoornDepartment of Psychology, Education and Child Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.ORCID 0000-0003-1144-454X
Avi Sagi-SchwartzSchool of Psychological Sciences and Center for the Study of Child Development, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.ORCID 0000-0002-6813-0667
Danya GlaserGreat Ormond Street Hospital, London, UK.
Miriam SteelePsychology Department, The New School, New York, NY, USA.ORCID 0000-0001-8837-1444
Mårten HammarlundDepartment of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.ORCID 0000-0002-2527-9357
Carlo SchuengelFaculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences, Clinical Child and Family Studies, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.ORCID 0000-0001-5501-3341
Marian J Bakermans-KranenburgFaculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences, Clinical Child and Family Studies, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.ORCID 0000-0001-7763-0711
Howard SteelePsychology Department, The New School, New York, NY, USA.ORCID 0000-0001-5371-2560
Phillip R ShaverUniversity of California, Davis, CA, USA.
Ulrike LuxDepartment Families and Family Policies, German Youth Institute, Munich, Germany.ORCID 0000-0002-8980-1861
John SimmondsBritish Association for Adoption and Fostering at Coram (Corambaaf), London, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-2972-8105
Deborah JacobvitzDepartment of Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-9428-7983
Ashley M GrohDepartment of Psychology, University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, MO, USA.ORCID 0000-0003-0235-9941
Kristin BernardDepartment of Psychology, Stony Brook University, New York, NY, USA.ORCID 0000-0003-2421-8453
Chantal CyrDépartement de Psychologie, Université du Québec à Montréal, Québec, Canada.ORCID 0000-0002-9667-7504
Nancy L HazenDepartment of Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.ORCID 0000-0003-1824-3150
Sarah FosterDepartment of Social Work, Education and Community Wellbeing, Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-6487-7309
Elia PsouniDepartment of Psychology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.ORCID 0000-0003-2758-5785
Philip A CowanDepartment of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.
Carolyn Pape CowanDepartment of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.
Anne Rifkin-GraboiSingapore Institute for Clinical Sciences (SICS, Agency for Science and Technology (A*STAR), Singapore, Singapore.ORCID 0000-0002-7641-4678
David WilkinsSchool of Social Sciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK.ORCID 0000-0003-2780-0385
Blaise PierrehumbertUniversity of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.ORCID 0000-0003-3223-965X
George M TarabulsySchool of Psychology, Laval University, Québec City, Canada.
Rodrigo A CarcamoDepartment of Psychology, University of Magallanes, Punta Arenas, Chile.ORCID 0000-0002-9227-7132
Zhengyan WangResearch Centre for Child Development, Beijing Key Laboratory of Learning and Cognition, School of Psychology, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China.ORCID 0000-0003-0178-804X
Xi LiangResearch Centre for Child Development, Beijing Key Laboratory of Learning and Cognition, School of Psychology, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China.ORCID 0000-0002-1968-2465
Maria KázmierczakInstitute of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Gdansk, Gdansk, Poland.ORCID 0000-0001-7323-2580
Paulina PawlickaInstitute of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Gdansk, Gdansk, Poland.ORCID 0000-0002-2342-1583
Lilian AyiroDepartment of Educational Psychology, Maseno University, Kisumu, Kenya.ORCID 0000-0002-9250-4884
Tamara ChansaDepartment of Psychology, University of Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia.ORCID 0000-0003-0981-7175
Francis SichimbaDepartment of Psychology, University of Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia.ORCID 0000-0002-8251-7921
Haatembo MooyaDepartment of Psychology, University of Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia.ORCID 0000-0002-8303-5414
Loyola McLeanBrain and Mind Centre, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.ORCID 0000-0002-6004-0093
Manuela VerissimoWilliam James Center for Research, ISPA - Instituto Universitário, Lisboa, Portugal.ORCID 0000-0003-4356-5696
Sonia Gojman-de-MillánResearch Center of the Seminario de Sociopsicoanálisis, Mexico City, Mexico.
Marlene M MorettiDepartment of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada.ORCID 0000-0003-1897-7568
Fabien BacroFaculté de Psychologie, Université de Nantes, Nantes, France.ORCID 0000-0001-9766-2358
Mikko J PeltolaHuman Information Processing Laboratory, Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland.ORCID 0000-0001-9993-9963
Megan GalballyCollege of Science, Health, Education and Engineering, Murdoch University, Murdoch, Australia.ORCID 0000-0003-3909-1918
Kiyomi Kondo-IkemuraDepartment of Psychology, Teikyo University, Tokyo, Japan.
Kazuko Y BehrensDepartment of Social & Behavioral Sciences, State University of New York Polytechnic Institute, Utica, NY, USA.
Stephen ScottInstitute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, Kings's College London, London, UK.ORCID 0000-0003-4680-6213
Andrés Fresno RodriguezDepartment of Psychology, University of Talca, Chile.ORCID 0000-0003-0916-504X
Rosario SpencerDepartment of Psychology, University of Talca, Chile.ORCID 0000-0002-4546-4226
Germán PosadaDepartment of Human Development and Family Studies, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA.
Rosalinda CassibbaDepartment of Educational Sciences, Psychology, Communication, University of Bari, Bari, Italy.ORCID 0000-0003-0930-3035
Neus Barrantes-VidalDepartament de Psicologia Clínica i de la Salut, Universitat Autònoma De Barcelona, Spain.ORCID 0000-0002-8671-1238
Jesus PalaciosDepartment of Developmental and Educational Psychology, University of Seville, Seville, Spain.ORCID 0000-0001-5819-9532
Lavinia BaroneDepartment of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, Lab of Attachment and Parenting - LAG, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy.ORCID 0000-0002-4072-8317
Sheri MadiganDepartment of Psychology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada.ORCID 0000-0002-7536-3258
Karen Jones-MasonCenter for Health & Community, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Sophie ReijmanDepartment of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.ORCID 0000-0003-1179-9180
Femmie JufferCentre for Child and Family Studies, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.ORCID 0000-0002-0246-498X
R Pasco FearonResearch Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, London, UK.
Annie BernierDépartement de Psychologie, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Canada.ORCID 0000-0002-2359-9808
Dante CicchettiInstitute of Child Development and Department of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
Glenn I RoismanInstitute of Child Development, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-6941-6560
Jude CassidyDepartment of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA.
Heinz KindlerGerman Youth Institute, Munich, Germany.
Peter ZimmermannDepartment of Psychology/Developmental Psychology, University of Wuppertal, Wuppertal, Germany.ORCID 0000-0002-0609-4103
Ruth FeldmanBaruch Ivcher School of Psychology, Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, Israel.ORCID 0000-0001-5048-1381
Gottfried SpanglerDepartment of Psychology, Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany.
Charles H ZeanahChild Study Center, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-7004-6819
Mary DozierInstitute of Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health, Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA, USA.
Jay BelskyDepartment of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA.ORCID 0000-0003-2191-2503
Michael E LambDepartment of Human Ecology, University of California, Davis, CA, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-6792-3526
Robbie DuschinskyDepartment of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.ORCID 0000-0003-2023-5328

Funding

Wellcome TrustWellcome Trust WT103343MA
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Attachment theory and research are drawn upon in many applied settings, including family courts, but misunderstandings are widespread and sometimes result in misapplications. The aim of this consensus statement is, therefore, to enhance understanding, counter misinformation, and steer family-court utilisation of attachment theory in a supportive, evidence-based direction, especially with regard to child protection and child custody decision-making. The article is divided into two parts. In the first, we address problems related to the use of attachment theory and research in family courts, and discuss reasons for these problems. To this end, we examine family court applications of attachment theory in the current context of the best-interest-of-the-child standard, discuss misunderstandings regarding attachment theory, and identify factors that have hindered accurate implementation. In the second part, we provide recommendations for the application of attachment theory and research. To this end, we set out three attachment principles: the child's need for familiar, non-abusive caregivers; the value of continuity of good-enough care; and the benefits of networks of attachment relationships. We also discuss the suitability of assessments of attachment quality and caregiving behaviour to inform family court decision-making. We conclude that assessments of caregiver behaviour should take center stage. Although there is dissensus among us regarding the use of assessments of attachment quality to inform child custody and child-protection decisions, such assessments are currently most suitable for targeting and directing supportive interventions. Finally, we provide directions to guide future interdisciplinary research collaboration.

Indexed as

Child CustodyObject AttachmentChildHumansAttachment theorybest interests of the childchild custodychild protectionconsensus statementfamily court

Identifiers

PMID33427578
PMCPMC7619454

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