TY -  JOUR
PY -  2019
SN -  1972-5140
T1 -  Assessing Attachment style in traumatized adolescents in residential care: A case approach
JO -  MALTRATTAMENTO E ABUSO ALL’INFANZIA
DA -  5/15/2019 12:00:00 AM
DO -  10.3280/MAL2019-001004
UR -  http://www.francoangeli.it/Riviste/Scheda_rivista.aspx?idArticolo=63886
AU -  Bifulco, Antonia
AU -  Jacobs, Catherine
AU -  Boyce, Nichola
AU -  Ilan-Clarke, Yael
SP -  39
EP -  54
IS -  1
VL -  21
LA -  EN
AB -  Traumatised young people present with damaged attachment styles. This is particularly no-ticeable among those in residential care who have been separated from their parents for rea-sons of neglect or abuse. Whilst any level of insecure attachment style confers risk for psy-chological disorder, those at more intense levels of mistrustful avoidance, and those catego-rised as ‘disorganized’ are seen to have higher levels of need. This is linked to more com-plex trauma, unresolved loss and mixed attachment patterns. The paper examines the at-tachment styles in two cases of young people in residential care, assessed using the At-tachment Style Interview as part of a larger action-research project (Bifulco et al., 2016). One has very marked angry-dismissive style and the other disorganized with mixed ap-proach-avoidance behaviours. The two young people selected have somewhat different trauma histories and present with different psychological disorders. Attachment characteris-tics are understandable in light of early life trauma and family relationships, but present dif-ficulties for attaining support, regulating emotions and coping. They also present difficulties for staff responsible for their care.
PB -  FrancoAngeli
ER -