Attachment in boys with early onsetconduct problems

Abstract

Few studies have examined the association between attachment and psychopathology insamples of clinically diagnosed children or the relation between attachment variables and thecontinuity of clinical symptoms. Clinic-referred preschool boys (n = 80) with earlyonset conduct problems (as indicated by diagnoses of Oppositional Defiant Disorder) werecompared with a case-matched group of 80 nonproblem boys to determine whether observedattachment behaviors could: (a) differentiate the groups, (b) explain concurrent variation inproblem severity within the clinic group, and (c) predict the outcomes of clinic boys 1 and 2years later. Over half of the clinic boys with early onset conduct problems (54%) exhibited aninsecure attachment strategy during reunion, as opposed to 18% of comparison group boys. Allinsecure patterns were overrepresented in the clinic group. Clinic boys were more likely thancomparison boys to engage in provocative behavior when separated from their mothers. Contraryto our hypothesis, attachment variables showed little ability to explain concurrent or futurevariation in the problem severity or diagnostic status of clinic boys. We conclude that observableattachment behaviors exhibited during the preschool years are related to the initial identificationof early onset conduct problems but may have little value by themselves in predicting thesubsequent course and severity of problems in the 2 years following clinic referral.