A Behavioral Perspective of Childhood Trauma and Attachment Issues: Toward Alternative Treatment Approaches for Children with a History of Abuse (Report‪)‬

INTRODUCTION Authors of recent studies on abuse have proposed that trauma and related traumatic experiences within the family of origin have important implications for parent-child relationships, and may disrupt normal attachment behavior in children. These studies have primarily examined previous trauma and long-term sequela of severe childhood and adolescent psychopathology from the perspective of attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969, 1973, 1980). The central premise of attachment theory is that the security of the early child-parent bond is reflected in the child's interpersonal relationships across the life span (Schneider, Tardif, & Atkinson, 2001). This article examines childhood trauma and attachment issues from the perspective of behavior analysis, and provides a forum in which the authors provide rationales for new cognitive focused or trauma-focused behavioral treatment approaches for abused children and their foster or adoptive parents. These new therapeutic models provide dyadic, cognitive, and emotive behavioral interventions that encourage positive behavior change with abused children placed in foster and adoptive families.