Explaining Disorganized Attachment: Clues From Research On Mild-to-Moderately Undernourished Children in Chile Everett Waters

A wide range of data have demonstrated the Disorganized attachment pattern can be scored reliably, has good discriminant validity vis a vis important alternative interpretations, and is related to significant developmental outcomes. The challenge now is to understand Disorganized attachment in terms of developmental mechanisms and activating conditions. Ideally, this would involve understanding Disorganized attachment in terms of the operating characteristics of an underlying attachment control system. Unfortunately, this is beyond the reach of current theory and methods. Nonetheless, we can develop useful hypotheses about mechanisms relevant to Disorganized attachment and collect data that can help decide among alternative hypotheses. This paper reports data on the stability of an Atypical attachment pattern observed in thirty-four nutritionally healthy and 37 chronically undernourished and children from an impoverished neighborhood in Santiago, Chile. The hallmarks of this pattern were (1) clear avoidance (or resistance) in the first reunion and then a change to clear resistance (or avoidance) in the second reunion or (2) a mixture or A and C behaviors across preseparation, separation, and reunion episodes. Thus most met Main & Solomon’s (1990) sequential contradictory behavior criterion for Disorganized attachment. The key findings were (1) very high rates of Atypical attachment in mild-to-moderately undernourished 18-month olds, (2) marked decline in the frequency of Atypical attachment (without improvement in nutritional status) at a 28-months, and (3) the fact that Atypical infants most often became good examples of standard insecure attachment patterns. Neither the high rate of Atypical attachment patterns nor their tendency to become typical insecure attachment patterns with age were predicted from attachment theory or previous research. The results are discussed in terms of mechanisms underlying the disorganized attachment pattern. In light of the possibility that there is important diversity within the disorganized attachment category, investigations of new populations, collaborative research, and meta-analysis deserve high priority in research on key issues. Address correspondance to Dr. Everett Waters, Department of Psychology, SUNY, Stony Brook, New York, 11794-2500. The data for this study were collected as part of a longitudinal study of nutrition and socio-emotional development designed and directed by Dr. Marta Valenzuela with the generous support of the Nestle Foundation. One of Bowlby’s primary goals in developing modern attachment theory was to preserve Freud’s genuine insights about close relationships. In order to accomplish this, Bowlby replaced Freud’s view of attachment as a bond based on mental energy with the concept of attachment as a secure base relationship organized by a behavioral control system. The hallmarks of infant secure base behavior are (1) exploration away from the caregiver, (2) monitoring the caregiver’s accessibility during exploration, (3) increased alertness to or proximity to the caregiver under circumstances that would impede monitoring or access, (4) preferential