Course description
This course provides an overview of attachment theory from infancy to adolescence and its clinical application in trauma-informed CYC practice. Topics include the socio-cultural origins of attachment theory, key concepts in attachment theory, psycho-biological origins of infant attachment, understanding the attachment process from infancy to adolescence, cross-cultural patterns of attachment, and clinical applications of modern attachment theory and research in trauma-informed CYC practice.
Course content
The following global ideas guide the design and delivery of this course:
- As child and youth care practice focuses around the importance of building strong relationships with children and youth, it is important for the CYC practitioner to understand the process of attachment, how it changes and how it can be affected across the life span.
- Attachment is a regulatory system that starts to develop in infancy and continues to develop throughout life via the process of dynamic, responsive interaction.
- The process of responsive caregiving enables the child to learn to sooth and calm themself. This self knowledge of what to do when faced with adversity enables the development of self-regulation.
- Children who have experienced early trauma often struggle to self-regulate.
- A number of factors can affect the attachment process:
- Parenting style
- Parent well-being, including a history of trauma
- Child well-being, including experiences of violence and trauma
- The child's temperament
- Macro level factors (cultural beliefs, values and practices; policies and legislation related to caregiving roles and responsibilities; colonization; racism; forced migration; able-ism)
- Attachment security influences
- confidence and trust in self and in relationships with others
- the capacity for self-regulation
- the capacity for empathy
- comfort and capacity in navigating change and challenges
- mental well-being over the life course
- Physical proximity to the primary caregiver and the family/caregiving unit decreases as the child ages and friends and romantic attachments become important. However, the family/caregiving unit still remains a secure base from which to negotiate autonomy well into young adulthood.
- Attachment theory influences how we take care of children in the home, hospital, and in childcare. Current laws around parental leave, custody agreements and foster care all grow out of the understanding of the importance of these early relationships to later psycho-social development.
- Understanding how attachment influences the developmental well-being of children and youth enables CYCC practitioners to respond to the challenges faced by children and youth within a framework of trauma-informed, anti-racist, anti-colonial care.
Means of assessment
This course will conform to Douglas College Evaluation Policy regarding the number and weighting of evaluations. An evaluation schedule is presented at the beginning of the course.
Typical means of evaluation would include a combination of:
- Written research assignments
- Case evaluation
- Group presentations
- Tests and exams
This is a letter-graded course
Instructors may use a student’s record of attendance and/or level of active participation in a course as part of the student’s graded performance. Where this occurs, expectations and grade calculations regarding class attendance and participation must be clearly defined in the Instructor Course Outline.
Learning outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Understand the process of secure attachment from infancy to adolescence
- Describe caregiving and the attachment process
- Understand the relationship between attachment and temperament
- Discuss the relationship between early attachment and later relationships when considering:
- Peer relationships
- Pair bonds
- Romantic attachments
- Understand the implications of disruptions in the attachment process
- Critically analyze the challenges faced by children in foster and adoptive care
- Consider the implications of trauma, loss, and grief to the attachment process
- Understand the psycho-biology of the attachment process
- Describe the neural constituents of attachment
- Discuss the social regulation of emotion
- Understand the relationship between responsive caregiving and physical arousal
- Describe how culture shapes the attachment process
- Discuss attachment experiences with children and families impacted by racism, able-ism, and colonization
- Discuss contemporary clinical applications of attachment theory in CYC practice
Textbook materials
Textbook and materials are to be purchased by students. A list of required textbooks and materials is provided for students at the beginning of the semester.