"What we have here is a failure to communicate": The misuse of attachment and bonding in the courtroom: A call for definitions and explanations.

Attachment and bond are two words often used in child custody evaluations and in family courts. Many professionals misuse these terms. Professionals often use phrases such as "strong attachment," "healthy bond," and "well‐attached," all phrases which are not in the scientific literature. Attachment has a specific definition in the scientific literature. Furthermore, other than the Strange Situation method of assessment, there are no well‐research reliable and valid methods for assessing the type of attachment, as defined in the scientific literature. Until such measures exist, evaluators, therapists, and family court professionals should avoid using the term attachment to describe parent‐child relationships, and instead focus on functional aspects of the parent‐child relationship. Key points for the family court community: Evaluators often misuse the word "attachment" and "bond" when they are, in fact, attempting to describe a parent‐child relationship, having not measured attachmentThere are no reliable valid and reliable measures of attachment designed for use in child custody evaluations, or normed on child custody litigantsThe use of scientific terms such as "attachment" and "bond" can give an air of scientific validity when evaluators are simply describing an observation. This can mislead the court.Evaluators should describe in observational terms what they see in the parent‐child relationship rather than use descriptive labels that may be interpreted in various manners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]