Attachment representations of adolescents in residential care

In this investigation the attachment representations of adolescents in residential care were examined for the first time. 72 adolescents were interviewed by using the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI). At the same time the degree of adolescent psychopathology was recorded. For this purpose the caregivers completed Achenbach's Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), the adolescents themselves answered Achenbach's.Youth Self Report (YSR). The adolescents in this sample proved to be severely burdened in psychopathological terms. They had access to only an insecure and, in many cases, an extremely insecure attachment representation. For a sub-group of adolescent mothers the early infant-mother attachment was examined using Ainsworth's Strange Situation. The findings show an intergenerational transmission of insecure attachment relationships. The implications of these results for the practice of residential care inspired by attachment theory are discussed.