Insecure and Disorganised Attachment in Children with a Pervasive Developmental Disorder: Relationship with Social Interaction and Heart Rate

• Published in: Journal of child psychology and psychiatry Vol. 41; no. 6; pp. 759 - 767
• Main Authors: Willemsen-Swinkels, Sophie H. N., Bakermans-Kranenburg, Marian J., Buitelaar, Jan K., van IJzendoorn, Marinus H., van Engeland, Herman
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford UK and Boston, USA Cambridge University Press 01.09.2000; Blackwell Publishing Ltd; Blackwell; Pergamon Press
• Subjects: Attachment; Autism; autistic disorder; behavioural measures; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Child clinical studies; Child development; Child Development Disorders, Pervasive - diagnosis; Child, Preschool; Children; Cognition Disorders - diagnosis; Developmental disorders; ethology; Female; Heart Rate - physiology; Humans; Infantile autism; Interpersonal Relations; Language; Male; Medical sciences; Mental disorders; Object Attachment; Pervasive Developmental Disorder; Pervasive developmental disorders; Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Severity of Illness Index; Social Behavior; Social interaction; Videotape Recording; child development; ethology; attachment; behavioural measures; autistic disorder; Pervasive Developmental Disorder; Human; Preschool age; Developmental disorder; Personality; Adult child relation; Parent child relation; Heart rate; Autism; Social behavior; Affective attachment; Social interaction; Hemodynamics; Child
• ISSN: 0021-9630; 1469-7610
• DOI: 10.1111/1469-7610.00663

This study on children with a Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD; N = 32), children with developmental language disorder (N = 22), and normally developing children (N = 28) sought to answer questions concerning attachment and autistic behaviour. We could replicate the finding that children with a PDD are able to develop secure attachment relationships to their primary caregiver. Children with PDD who had an insecure attachment showed fewer social initiatives and responses than children with PDD who had a secure attachment, even when the insecurely and securely attached PDD children were matched on chronological and mental age. Children with both a PDD and mental retardation were more often classified as disorganised. Three findings suggested that a disorganised attachment does not merely reflect the presence of “autistic” behaviour: (1) children with PDD did not reveal higher rates of a disorganised attachment than matched comparison children; (2) having a PDD diagnosis and having a disorganised attachment were found to be associated with opposite effects on an ethological measure of level of behavioural organisation; and (3) a disorganised attachment but not a PDD diagnosis was associated with an increase in heart rate during parting with the caregiver and a decrease in heart rate during reunion.