Attachment-informed Supervision for Social Work Field Education

Supervisory relationships present a new population for the application of attachment theory, and conceptualization of attachment-informed supervision training offers a new direction for study. This paper presents an 8-month model of supervision training for social work field instructors of MSW students. The training’s design incorporates primary attachment concepts with an understanding of the supervisory working alliance and parallel process. An overview of the in-person and on-line pilot training is presented, including perceptions from the participants regarding the training’s usefulness. This training program has implications for effective social work field education, and recommendations are suggested for future attachment research on supervision.

Treatment for Children with Trauma-Attachment Disorders: Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy

Children with histories of maltreatment are at significant risk of developing severe psychiatric problems. Treatment of such children is difficult and there are no empirical studies evaluating the effectiveness of outpatient treatment for children with trauma-attachment disorders. The present study examines the effectiveness of Dyadic Developmental Therapy, a treatment based on attachment theory, provided by one therapist in an outpatient setting. The 64 subjects all had trauma-attachment disorders, met the DSM-IV criteria for Reactive Attachment Disorder, and had histories of serious maltreatment. The 34 children in the treatment group were treated in weekly outpatient therapy at The Center For Family Development with Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy. The 30 children in the control group were evaluated but did not received Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy and received treatment from other providers at other clinics. Eligible subjects were children between the ages of five and seventeen years whose case had been closed in 2000 or 2001. All children had significant past histories of abuse, neglect, or orphanage care. Findings for children in the treatment group, as measured by the Achenback and Randolph Attachment Disorder Questionnaire, were significant decreases (p<.01) in symptoms of attachment disorder, withdrawn behaviors, anxiety and depression, social problems, thought problems, attention problems, rule-breaking behaviors, and aggressive behaviors. The findings for children in the control group showed no changes in the variables measured. Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy appears to be an effective treatment for children with trauma-attachment disorders.The author would like to gratefully acknowledge Ms. Geraldine Gallucci, a master’s level social work intern, who was placed with The Center For Family Development. Ms. Gallucci ensured that the follow-up questionnaires were mailed to the families and returned to the agency.Arthur Becker-Weidmann is affiliated with Center for Family Development, Williamsville, USA.     

Social Work's Role in Prenatal Diagnosis and Genetic Services: Current Practice and Future Potential

Abstract

Although the development of sophisticated technologies associated with prenatal testing processes have assisted in the practice of prenatal diagnosis, limited attention has been given to the complexities surrounding the decision-making processes for pregnant women following a poor or fatal diagnosis. An emerging international body of knowledge suggests that the process of having prenatal testing and then deciding on whether to continue a wanted pregnancy is often difficult and traumatic. In the last 50 years, social workers have played an invaluable role in the provision of holistic counselling and support for children and families in a range of areas and contexts. This paper highlights the unique contributions that social workers can bring to the field of prenatal testing. It emphasises the consideration of strengths and values inherent within social work practice that provides appropriate and timely support for women who have received a poor or fatal diagnosis following prenatal testing.     

Best Practice for Adolescent Prenatal Care: Application of an Attachment Theory Perspective to Enhance Prenatal Care and Diminish Birth Risks

The purpose of this article is to present a best practice model for adolescent prenatal care. Increasing rates of unplanned pregnancies coupled with the highest rates of all age groups with inadequate prenatal care make this population especially vulnerable to birth risks and maternal–infant relational problems. While there is much literature on individual level variables that affect prenatal care adherence such as age, poverty, low self-esteem, and transportation, there is little practice based research knowledge on diminishing potential birth risks by repairing and building the maternal–infant (fetus) relationship prior to the actual birth of the child. Using findings from the author’s former study, practitioner experience, and a review of evidence based literature, the article presents an innovative attachment theory based prenatal care model for social work practitioners and other health care professionals working with pregnant adolescents.     

South African social workers' knowledge of attachment theory and their perceptions of attachment relationships in foster care supervision

Despite the prominence of attachment theory in international foster care literature and the importance of attachment relationships in successful foster care, attachment theory and practices do not feature prominently in South African foster care research. Against this backdrop, we interviewed twenty South African social workers' about their knowledge of attachment theory and their perceptions of attachment relationships in their own foster care work. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the interviews. We found that the social workers had limited knowledge of attachment theory and interventions; experienced most biological parents as unmotivated to improve their circumstances and attachment relationships with children; indicated that family reunifications were rare occurrences; reported foster parents were mostly kin; and experienced constraining contextual factors that hindered optimal consideration of attachment relationships in foster care supervision.     

Karen Horney and Psychotherapy in the 21st Century

Many ideas currently circulating in the psychological and psychoanalytic communities have correspondence with the theories put forth by Karen Horney during the first half of the twentieth century. This paper provides an overview of Horney’s theoretical departures from Freud and an introduction to her then controversial views of motivation and relationship. Compatibility between Horney’s ideas and attachment theory, self-psychology, intersubjectivity, and the person in the environment is discussed. Two clinical cases are presented, illustrating Horney’s theory and approach. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2004 National Meeting of the Committee on Psychoanalysis of the Federation of Societies for Clinical Social Work in New York.     

Northern Theory: The Political Geography of General Social Theory

The relationship between geopolitical position and general social theory is examined by a detailed reading of three important texts, Coleman’s Foundations of Social Theory, Bourdieu’s Logic of Practice, and Giddens’s Constitution of Society. Effects of metropolitan position are traced in theoretical strategies, conceptions of time and history, models of agency, ideas of modernity, and other central features of their theorizing. Four textual moves are identified that together constitute the northernness of general social theory: claiming universality, reading from the center, gestures of exclusion, and grand erasure. Some alternative paths for theory, embodying different relations with the global South, are briefly indicated. Raewyn Connell is University Professor at the University of Sydney, and author, co-author, or editor of nineteen books, including Ruling Class Ruling Culture (1977), Making the Difference (1982), Gender and Power (1987), Schools and Social Justice (1992), Masculinities (1995), The Men and the Boys (2000), and Gender (2002). Connell is an Editor of Theory and Society. A contributor to research journals in sociology, education, political science, gender studies, and related fields, her current research concerns social theory, neo-liberalism, corporate masculinities, gender practices, and intellectual labor.     

Parenthood and Commitment to the Legal Profession: Are Mothers Less Committed than Fathers?

This research examined the relationship between parenthood and career commitment. Karasek’s (Administrative Science Quarterly 24:285–308, 1979) Job Demand-Job Control Model was used as a theoretic framework for hypothesizing the relationships between work and family demands, job control and social support and parents’ career commitment. Questionnaire data from a sample of practicing lawyers with children were used to test this model. The results show fathers generally reported more work demands than mothers; whereas, mothers reported more family demands than fathers. Job control and social support did not moderate relationships between work and family demands and parents’ career commitment. Perhaps the most surprising finding of this study, contrary to assumptions in the literature and the workplace, was that mothers practicing law are significantly more committed to their careers than fathers. This paper closes by discussing possible explanations for these findings.

“Why Don’t You Just Tell Me How You Feel?”: A Case Study of a Young Mother in an Attachment-Based Group Intervention

This paper describes an attachment-based parenting intervention, the Circle of Security, and presents a case study of one participant’s experience as a member of it. The Circle of Security is a group intervention for parents of young children ages 1–5 that teaches parents to recognize and respond to their children’s alternating needs for attachment and exploration. The intervention content in group sessions relies to a great extent on discussions of videotaped vignettes of each parent–child dyad. Ultimately, the intervention focuses on strengthening parents’ capacities for empathic responsiveness to their children’s needs for them. In the second part of the paper, the case study illustrates one mother’s experience in a Circle of Security group designed for parents involved with the child welfare system as a result of substantiated maltreatment. Observations of this parent indicate that her capacity for empathic understanding was greatly strengthened, which appears to be related to important behavior change.     

“I Deserve a Family”: The Evolution of an Adolescent’s Behavior and Beliefs About Himself and Others When Treated with Theraplay in Residential Care

This article chronicles a seriously disturbed adopted adolescent’s experience in an attachment focused residential program at which the primary treatment was Theraplay^®. Adopted at age four following significant abuse and neglect, Tom lived in institutions for 5 years before participating in Chaddock’s Developmental Trauma and Attachment Program (DTAP). He now resides successfully in the home of therapeutic foster parents. Theraplay treatment directly meets attachment needs through adult-guided, highly positive, engaging and nurturing interactions to change the child’s working models of attachment and to develop affect regulation. Theraplay was especially useful with this adolescent who was born addicted and who had little ability to participate in insight oriented therapy. Topics include adolescence and attachment, Theraplay theory, process and applications, and the DTAP milieu and treatment program. This case study demonstrates that it is possible to improve the outcome for adolescent development by directly meeting the adolescent’s attachment needs through the Theraplay model.     

Parents’ Interpersonal Distance and Touch Behavior and Child Pain and Distress during Painful Pediatric Oncology Procedures

Children with cancer and their parents report that treatment-related procedures are more traumatic and painful than cancer itself. Competing hypotheses have emerged regarding relations between parents’ social support and child pain and distress. Little is known about caregivers’ use of nonverbal immediacy behaviors that may function as social support messages. This study describes caregivers’ interpersonal distance and touch behaviors during painful pediatric oncology procedures and examines relations between those behaviors and children’s pain and distress. Caregivers’ total touch time and instrumental (task-oriented) touch time, but not supportive touch time, during the actual procedure covaried with children’s procedural pain and distress. This research was conducted as part of a larger investigation funded by a grant from the National Cancer Institute, “Parental Role in Pediatric Cancer Pain and Survivorship” (NCI R01 CA100027), Terrance L. Albrecht, PI. The authors wish to thank Ellen Jones for her efforts.     

Voice and Cure: The Significance of Voice in Repairing Early Patterns of Disregulation

This paper illustrates the value of the analyst’s awareness of the importance of her voice with its various intonations in the telephone treatment of a patient with early infant/mother attachment patterns of disregulation. The authors describe the significance of a particular kind of pervasive verbal intrusion by the patient’s mother and how through the use of voice pattern, tone, and rhythm in an extended period of telephone therapy, the patient was able to solidify a more secure attachment. Finally, the authors demonstrate how the verbal music in the analyst/patient and the mother/child dyads enhances self and interactive regulation.

Dissociation,Traumatic Attachments,and Self-Harm: Eating Disorders and Self-Mutilation

Self-harm, such as eating disorders and self-mutilation, represents dissociated compensatory attempts to serve self-regulatory functions. Self-harm develops when the child who has become attached to those who have inflicted pain and suffering maintains that attachment by inflicting pain on himself. Brain imaging studies have found that the communication pattern between parent and child shapes the way the child’s attachment system adapts to experiences with the attachment figure, literally hardwiring the child’s brain. The good news is that a safe and secure attachment is very good medicine and can rewire the brain. An attachment-based multi-phase approach to treatment is presented.

Sociology,energy and interdisciplinary environmental science

The movement toward interdisciplinary studies of human-environment interactions holds considerable appeal for environmental sociologists. But a survey of the paradigms and institutions that govern interdisciplinary research onenergy—a key variable in socioecological theory and an important cause of environmental decline—suggests that the prospects for a significant sociological role in these sorts of studies could turn out to be fairly limited. Over the past twenty years, a variety of devices have been successfully used in interdisciplinary energy analysis to diminish the importance of the social, and to marginalize the contributions of the social sciences. This is unfortunate because insights from sociological studies of the energy system are of considerable value in both disciplinary theory-building and interdisciplinary environmental policy-making. These external limits on sociological analysis are only part of the story. Sociology’s own theoretical unease with technology and the physical/natural world, and its insular tendencies in regard to other disciplines, have significantly contributed to a decline of sociological work on energy-environment topics over the past decade. Given growing interest by natural scientists in the human dimensions of global environmental change, the time now seems right for a renewal of energy research by sociologists—although the initiative must come from within the discipline. A number of suggestions are offered for anchoring the sociology of human-environment interactions more firmly in the discipline, as well as for expanding sociology’s role in interdisciplinary environment research. The comments and suggestions of Gene Rosa, Riley Dunlap, Tom Dietz, Bruce Hackett, Bill Freudenburg and anonymous reviewers have been helpful in revising earlier drafts of the paper. The research was supported in part by the Washington State University Agricultural Experiment Station.     

Tell Me a Story: A Review of Narrative Assessments for Preschoolers

The use of narrative assessments in mental health research with young children has increased significantly over the last 15 years. This article reviews 13 empirically validated narrative assessments for preschool populations. The reviewed instruments assess children’s attachment relationships, moral values, separation anxiety, pro-social behavior, object relations and depression, among other constructs. The authors present an analysis of each instrument including a discussion of its methodological rigor, and point to needed directions in the field. These narrative assessment instruments provide researchers and clinicians with insight into the internal worlds of young children, offering windows into a difficult-to-assess population.     

Lessons from Marrano Beach: Attachment and Culture

SUMMARY

Clinical experiences, research within the American Indian/Alaska Native and Latino/a Los Angeles community, consultation with colleagues, and reflections on professional development indicate that cultural material exerts profound influence on individual, family, and community development. Reflections on practice are discussed that emphasize the role of theory, the significance of culture, and the importance of consultation in all levels of social work practice. In particular, the discussion notes that the prevailing paradigm on cultural competency can be expanded by integrating concepts from attachment theory in the analysis of why culture exerts such a profound influence on human development and behavior.     

Interventions for Internationally Adopted Children and Families: A Review of the Literature

Internationally adopted (IA) children are at increased risk for health-related, developmental, and behavioral difficulties. This article reviews the literature on various interventions currently used with IA populations; including health-related interventions provided by medical specialists, preparation programs provided by adoption agencies and other social service organizations, treatments for attachment and behavioral disorders, psychoeducational services, programs designed to improve children’s care prior to adoption, and parent-based initiatives. Surprisingly, very little systematic information exists regarding the effectiveness of interventions designed to prevent and remediate these difficulties in IA children. Recommendations for future research activity and for best practice approaches to intervention are discussed.     

Resilience in Undergraduate Social Work Students: Social Support and Adjustment to Academic Stress1

The purpose of this exploratory study was to analyze the relationship between academic stress and resilience in American, undergraduate social work students (N = 145), and to identify whether social support functioned as a protective factor amid this relationship. Testing social support within models of mediation and moderation served this purpose. Surveys were submitted to three social work programs and solicited empirical data on academic stress; social support and two subsystems, family and friend support; and perceived resilience. The sample reported moderate levels of academic stress, social support, and resilience. Academic stress significantly (p < 0.05), negatively influenced social support and resilience. Social support systems exerted significant, positive influence with each other and with resilience. No social supports mediated the negative stress effect on resilience. Friend support moderated the academic stress–resilience relationship. Implications for social work educators and field agency practitioners regarding enhancement of supportive peer relationships among undergraduate students are discussed.     

Remembering reuel denney: Sociology as cultural studies

Selected writings from Reuel Denney’s work as a social analyst are reviewed in order to establish and highlight his often-overlooked contributions to sociology. Denney’s cultural studies of Americans at play, with specific reference to his writings on the subcultures of football and hot-rodding, and on television and the electronic media, advertising and architecture, are reviewed in examining some major themes emphasized in his sociology. These writings are discussed against the backdrop of Denney’s early life experiences drawn from his autobiography to better enable readers to gain an appreciation of his sociological thinking. The beginnings of a Denney postmodern are sketched as a conclusion to this paper’s major contention that Denney anticipated much of today’s sociology as cultural studies. As one of Reuel’s students, nearly forty years ago, I hope that this article serves not only to highlight Denney’s contributions and place within the discipline of sociology, but also that my personal recollections will serve to reveal the strong attachments we students felt toward him as our teacher, mentor, and friend. nt|mis|His teaching and research combine his interests in higher education and the professions, bureaucracy, social thought, mass media, and popular culture. His most recent book, Schooling As Entertainment: Corporate Education Meets Popular Culture, is available from Cedarreek Press.