Reassessing Attachment Theory in Child Welfare

Sue White is Professor of Social Work at the University of Sheffield. Matthew Gibson is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Social Work and Social Care at the University of Birmingham. David Wastell is Emeritus Professor of Information Systems at Nottingham University Business School. Patricia Walsh recently retired from the School of Social Work and Social Policy at Trinity College Dublin after 25 years as a social work academic.

• Preface: becoming attached to attachment theoryLove is a wondrous state: origins and early debatesSocial work and the attachment story: a felicitous bond?Shaping practice: prescribing assessmentPractising attachment theory in child welfareExhibiting disorganised attachment: not even wrong?Breaking the back of love: attachment goes neuro-molecularCoda: love reawakened?

"Reassessing Attachment Theory in Child Welfare is an incredibly valuable intervention into debates about the use of attachment theory and research by practitioners. The authors highlight major discrepancies between the accounts of attachment of researches and of practitioners and offer some timely cautions. They also present an insightful account of why attachment theory - or, at least, a cut-down version of it - has had such appeal for child welfare practice. A terrific contribution to the literature." Matthew Gibson, University of Birmingham