This thesis examines whether adult attachment, measured using a self-report instrument, can inform outcome from parent training for children with disruptive behaviours.
Firstly the background to the problem of disruptive behaviours is described, along with those factors shown to predispose children to those behaviours and to maintain them. There follows a report on the Bangor Project for Children with
Disruptive Behaviours. This project examined whether intensive treatment, involving an initial 3 days' attendance at a purpose-built unit, would produce better outcomes than standard Child and Adolescent Mental Health treatment. The sample comprised 41 children (35 boys and 6 girls) aged 27-121 months, referred with severe disruptive
behaviours, and their mothers. Mothers received behaviourally-based therapy in both intensive and standard treatment. Outcome measures were taken 9 months after the start of treatment. Results showed no differences between the groups in child behaviour outcome, which was the only targeted variable. The duration of the problem before treatment was the factor most strongly associated with clinically important change. However, there were indications that concomitant positive effects
of treatment were greater for the mothers in intensive treatment, more of whom remained in treatment.
The attachment literature is then addressed, outlining attachment theory and classifications applied to infants. Links are then made between the parenting and child behaviour outcomes associated with different infant attachment categories.
Evidence for ways in which adult attachment relates to those factors implicated in the development and maintenance of disruptive behaviours and to parent training is then presented.
A subsample of mothers from the Bangor Project for Children with Disruptive Behaviours (N = 29) had completed the Adult Attachment Scale (Collins & Read, 1990) at the same time as the other measures. This sample was used to
investigate whether mothers' attachment style, secure or insecure, could inform outcome for their children. A regression model showed that follow-up standardised child externalising behaviour scores were strongly associated with baseline scores in the secure group but not in the insecure group. The model accounted for 60% of the variance in follow-up scores. The implications from this relating to parent training for children with disruptive behaviours, are discussed.