Nicola Attwoll Staying Connected

School Guidance Counsellors Conference27 June 2007

Staying Connected: The Role of the School in Fostering Secure Attachment and Resilience in

Young People

Nicola Atwool

Principal Advisor


OverviewOverview

• Attachment theory and research

• Attachment patterns and young people’s behaviour

• Attachment and resilience

• Implications for the school environment

With PermissionTaonga Education Centre

Photographs Used


Attachment theoryAttachment theory

• John Bowlby– Biological base– Importance of relationship

• Mary Ainsworth and the Strange Situation– Management of anxiety– Sensitive responsiveness– Secure base


CritiquesCritiques

• Feminism and concept of maternal deprivation

• Cultural– Shared across cultures– Patterns of behaviour show cultural variation


Key conceptsKey concepts

• Patterns of attachment– Secure– Ambivalent– Avoidant– Disorganised/disoriented

• Intergenerational transmission


Internal Working ModelsInternal Working Models

• Such models concerning the availability of others and in turn, the self as worthy or unworthy of care, provide a basic context for subsequent transactions with the environment, most particularly social relationships (Sroufe, 1988, p.18).


Internal working modelsInternal working models

• Mental representations

• Play an active role in guiding behaviour

• Exist outside of consciousness

• Propensity for stability

• Formed out of attachment relevant events

• May be altered through changes in experience and capacity to reflect


Brain DevelopmentBrain Development

• Not complete at birth

• Rapid growth over first three years

• Sequential and use-dependent

• Attachment crucial


Brain DevelopmentBrain Development

• This development can proceed in an optimal fashion when the presentation of new stimuli is safe, nurturing and predictable, repetitive, gradual and attuned to the infant’s or child’s development stage. When new experience is chaotic, extreme or mismatched to developmental stage, development is disrupted (Perry & Pollard, 1998).


Brain developmentBrain development

• Combination of differentiation and integration

• Within secure attachments, such self-organisation may be seen as the gift that caregivers offer to their children: to enable the self to achieve differentiation and integration in acquiring flexible and adaptive means for self regulation (Seigel, 2001, p. 85).

• Self regulation

• Reflective function


IWMs in AdolescenceIWMs in Adolescence

• Secure– Self perceived as worthy– Others perceived as reliable and available

– When faced with threat responds with affect and cognition

– Neural integration is promoted– Child achieves adaptive balance– Primary strategy in new situations is mastery


Secure AdolescentsSecure Adolescents

• Present as confident, out-going

• Able to acknowledge distress and seek support

• More able to talk about attachment experiences in ways that reflect balance, perspective and autonomy

• Acknowledge importance of attachment and more likely to be accepted by peers

• Less likely to exhibit internalising or externalising behaviour

• Less likely to have problems associated with substance abuse


AvoidantAvoidant

• Self is perceived as unworthy

• Others are unavailable and hurtful

• Environment is threatening

• Self reliant

• Cognitive development but affect is suppressed

• Pragmatic problem-solving


AvoidantAvoidant

• Relationships not regarded as important

• May be underlying anger and resentment

• Dominant strategy is control

• Reflective function is impaired and mental state of others is likely to be shunned


Avoidant AdolescentsAvoidant Adolescents

• Present as sullen and withdrawn

• Intermittent outbursts of rage

• Superficial peer relationships

• World is a potentially dangerous place

• Parents idealised

• Less able to acknowledge distress or access support

• Hostility displaced on to peers

• Low ego resilience, higher level of anxiety


AmbivalentAmbivalent

• Uncertainty about the worthiness of self

• Others are perceived to be unreliable, over-bearing and insensitive

• Environment is unpredictable and chaotic

• Cognitive responses are deactivated because they are experienced as ineffective

• Affective responses are amplified


AmbivalentAmbivalent

• Self-regulation is not achieved

• Helplessness and resentment dominate

• Dominant strategy is manipulation

• Heightened focus on internal state of self with impaired capacity to reflect on the internal state of others


Ambivalent AdolescentsAmbivalent Adolescents

• Intense and explosive relationships with attachment figures

• Desperately seek relationships but fear rejection

• Attention directed towards distress

• Parents perceived as loving but role reversing

• Have good recall of attachment experiences but

• Preoccupation with attachment experiences reflected in angry, diffuse unfocused discussion

• Higher levels of internalising behaviour


DisorganisedDisorganised

• Arises in situations of neglect and abuse

• Child faced with task of maintaining proximity to person who is source of threat

• Caregiver frightening or frightened

• Self is perceived to be unworthy

• Others are frightening or helpless

• Environment is chaotic and dangerous



• Hyper-arousal impairs cognitive development

• Affective responses dominate

• Child is fearful and reactive

• Play is inhibited

• May develop compulsive compliance

• Dominant strategy is survival



• Capacity to reflect on own internal state is limited, may lack the ability to identify feeling states

• Hypervigilant of caregiver cues and internal state of other

• Reflective capacity significantly impaired

• Significant problems by adolescence


Disorganised AdolescentsDisorganised Adolescents

• Increased rates of psychopathology, violent crime

• Higher use of marijuana

• Parental and school-related problems associated with substance use

• Lower self esteem, coping and social mastery


ResilienceResilience

• Four crucial factors:– Individual attributes– Family support– External support– Cultural connection

• Attachment instrumental in all four


Resilient AdolescentsResilient Adolescents

• Secure - high self esteem, access to positive adults, positive expectations of self and others

• Avoidant and ambivalent - lack self-confidence, low self esteem, difficulties negotiating relationships

• Disorganised - no organised coping strategies, most vulnerable


Reworking internal working Reworking internal working modelsmodels

• Further brain development at adolescence offers opportunity to rework iwms

• Exposure to positive relationship experiences necessary to facilitate this

• Increasing cognitive sophistication enables reflection

• In very difficult situations young people can move away from destructive relationships


Implications for EducatorsImplications for Educators

• School as a secondary caregiving environment

• Secondary school as secure base – School as safe place– Connection with teachers and other staff– Sense of achievement and self-worth

• Academic success• Sport and cultural activities

• Importance of early intervention


Restorative PracticesRestorative Practices

• Enhance sense of connection

• Foster sense of belonging

• Reduce need to use exclusion

• Relationships are the key


Key FactorsKey Factors

• Restorative approach builds a constructive and inclusive school environment

• Whole school approach requiring commitment from all parties

• Constructive management of disciplinary problems– Positive reinforcement– Restorative meetings and conferences

• Promotion of restorative values– Respect rather than denigration


Key factorsKey factors

• Evolutionary process– Takes time to embed changes

• Ongoing training of staff and development of school structures that promote development of support systems

• Secure long-term funding needed for training and support systems


Changes neededChanges needed

• Principal plays key role

• Staff training

• Internal support for students– Counsellors, mentors, buddies– Additional academic support

• Referrals to external services where needed


ConclusionConclusion

• Restorative practices help schools find new ways of engaging students and creating learning environments in which students feel they belong and can achieve

• Schools can provide young people with a secure base– Complementing what is available at home– Compensating for what is missing

• In this way young people have the opportunity to rework internal working models and resilience is enhanced

Nicola Attwoll Staying Connected

Health & Medicine

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