Using an Attachment-Informed Framework in the Clinical Care of Children and Adolescents: A Review of Attachment Theory and Its Impact on Developmental Psychopathology

This article provides an overview of attachment and its impact on the developmental psychopathology in children and adolescents. Attachment plays a crucial role in providing the foundation for healthy acquisition of social, cognitive, and emotional development starting in early childhood. In this article, we also provide a brief overview of psychopathology from an attachment perspective. Secure attachments confer protective factors that can lead to stable, fulfilling relationships. In contrast, insecure attachments can lead to risk for a wide variety of pathogenic states and psychiatric disorders. Attachment can be conceptualized within a vulnerability model, rather than as a direct cause of psychopathology. Given that attachment is an essential building block of healthy development, clinicians treating children and adolescents should adopt an attachment-informed framework in understanding child and adolescent psychopathology, both in terms of protective factors and risk factors. This article will allow the clinician to more accurately formulate the basis of a child's mental health disturbance and define adequate treatment strategies. [ Psychiatr Ann . 2021;51(7):300–315.]