Attachment and Child Custody

This chapter provides an overview of attachment theory and its foundations in research. It discusses how it can enhance the understanding of parent-child relationships and urges caution in the overextension of the tools and findings of attachment research to child custody evaluations. It argues that insights from attachment theory directly bear on the central inquiry of custody disputes, the nature of the relationship between young parents and children, and the developmental implications of their disruption. On the other hand, many experts agree that the application of attachment assessment tools to a family system in the midst of crisis is insufficiently understood at the current time. In a practical sense, this dramatically limits the application of attachment theory within forensic evaluations.