The Strengths And Weaknesses In Using Bowlby’S Attachment Theory In Social Work Practice With Homeless Children

Attachment theory is all about infants should biologically predisposed to form attachment relationships which give them the security and comfort. Attachment figure gives the secure base that the child need. Whenever the child feel threatened he or she seeks the security, and the child uses the base as a platform for exploring and learning when the threat is reduced. According to Bowlby the child uses the early experience which lead to the development of cognitive model (internal working model) the relationships can influence and it is modified by later relationships. This is the earliest relationships in a child’s life, and that is the base and foundation for the child’s later development. Secure attachments makes determine the child’s and its trust development with others and self-reliance in themselves. Securely attached children with positive expectations of self and others approach life with confidence.

As practitioners, we should support children, young people and their families to be able to understand attachment theory and its application to interventions will be helpful. With the early intervention and prevention services one helps this people with the help of attachment theory in other to guide parents and carers in the early care of their children. Additionally it is a clinician’s hope that later adjustment for children is not just dependent upon their early experiences. As Clarke and Clarke (2000) remind us, ‘early experience represents no more than a first (and important) step on a long and complex path through life’. We might be working with parents, carers and children at many stages on this life path. Interventions aimed at helping children recover from difficult early attachment experience which also need to be part of our ‘toolbox’.

Thinking about the development of interventions, it has always come from Attachment Theory, and this has being very slow process. Bowlby’s was trying to promote change in childrearing practices. It was writing very late in his career, and there was not much about applications to clinical practice. For Bowly, developing interventions for child and family work was very important. For Bowly the development was urgent because of the needs to looked after children are becoming better understood. These children have experienced early adversity, therefore their early attachment relationships will have been compromised. This has result to a range of interventions by focusing on improving the security of attachment of the children, parents or even the carers, by either as an end in itself or so that they can achieve bigger improvements for these children. It has also being a renewed controversy as the efficacy and ethics of interventions are debated. When it comes to interventions with infants and their parents there is good research base, but when it comes to interventions about older children, not much research was done and it has overshadowed because of the criticisms and concerns about holding therapy. It is good, because it focuses to the importance of the interventions being properly derived from Attachment Theory, in other cases it has brought divided between researchers and practitioners. The researchers want social workers to know more about how infant attachment and how they should intervene to improve the sensitivity and responsivity of parents. With this, they have succeeded with the intervention programs, although it is an irony that successful and evidence-based programs are left without funding.

It is very difficult and dangerous in using the attachment theory in assessments. It is not so easy to use the assessment forms even for experts in the field, social workers complain that they are required to make attachment assessments relate to homeless children without prior training of the method. It is important that the social workers do a task that tries to consciously treats these parents and support them in some sort of self-respect, and they should give the right resource. In that way the attachment theory shows its strength in using it in social work with homeless children.

In using this attachment theory, social worker' ability to understand the child's connection is limited because the meetings with children and guardians are short and few, custodians and children do not always meet at the same time, and the investigation of parental ability is not included in the duties of the social worker. Talking about affiliation with custodians is problematic as the subject can be sensitive. Social workers state that the investigations are complex as the entire family perspective should be included. Working on support for separation and promoting safe affiliation is an important part of social work. Investigating and supporting in parenting skills is also not part of the social worker job so that’s makes it difficult for them to work with the attachment theory.