Model of Maltreatment

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Model of Maltreatment

• Explain pattern of occurrences and
  non-occurrences of maltreatment
• Describe process by which maltreatment is
  transmitted from one person to another

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Thesis

• Insecure attachment is a critical concept in
  regard to both the origin of family maltreatment
  and the rehabilitation of families.

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Attachment Theory Postulates

• Attachment relationships important for individual
  functioning at all ages
• Primary function of attachment relationships to
  promote protection and survival of young
• Individuals actual behavior determined by
  interplay of situational factors and previous
  experience with similar situations

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Attachment Theory Postulates

• Patterns of attachment behavior affect direction
  of childrens developmental course
• Effect of IWM is to change behavior in way that
  makes current attachments more stressful and
  future attachments less likely to be secure
• Attachment problems defined in terms of how
  successful relationship is in providing
  sufficient security such that person freed to
  attend to others aspects of lives

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Internal Working Models

• Abusing Mother
• model of others tied to issues of
  conflict, control and rejection
• self-perception involves coercion and
  victimization
• accompanying affect anger

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Internal Working Models

• Neglecting Mother
• model of others center around concept of
  hopelessness
• self-perception ineffective
• accompanying affect emptiness and depression

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Internal Working Models

• Adequate Mothers
• model of others centers around ideas of
  competence and reciprocity
• self-perception capable of getting support and
  providing support to others
• accompanying affect satisfaction

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Hypothesis 1Insecure Attachments

• Individuals in maltreating families expected to
  form insecure attachments with family members
• child to parent
• parent to own parents, partners, children
• distorted internal representational models
  underlie insecure attachments

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Hypothesis 2 Internal Conflict

• It is hypothesized that insecure attachments will
  be associated with conflicting impulses within
  the individual that might lead to behavior
  otherwise considered paradoxical.

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Hypothesis 3 Coping with Parents

• Different types of maltreatment will be
  associated with different organizations of child
  behavior relevant to the childrens interaction
  with a parent.

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Hypothesis 4 Coping with the Environment

• Styles of interpersonal behavior will be related
  to the effectiveness of the childrens
  exploration of their environment.

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Hypothesis 5 Niche Picking

• Behavior patterns of family members and
  attachment relationships would be expected to
  affect other aspects of their social ecology,
  such as social networks, employment, and, for the
  children, school experiences.

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Hypothesis 6 Adaptation

• Childrens patterns of behavior would be
  predicted to be adaptive in the immediate sense
  of promoting immediate survival while being
  maladaptive in the long run in the sense of
  personal mental health.