Integrating attachment theory with other approaches to developmental psychopathology.

O’Connor and Zeanah (2003) identify two different strands of thinking in attachment problems. The first comprises descriptions of clinical attachment disorders of seriously impaired children and adolescents, while the second provides a way of conceptualizing and measuring insecure attachment patterns displayed by infants who have a regular caregiver. Boris and Zeanah (1999) helpfully propose that these two classificatory systems might be drawn together in a spectrum with insecure response patterns at the milder end, and attachment disorders at the severe end. O’Connor and Zeanah (2003) also call for descriptive studies of attachment disorder that do not presume any cause. This article suggests that there may be a number of subtypes of attachment disorder, and that the difficulties children with attachment problems face require more than exclusively an attachment framework to meet their needs.