How young children cope with separation: toward a new conceptualization.
In this paper, it is argued that 'separation protest' and the protest-despair-detachment (PDD) pattern, having passed into folklore and become an almost undebated cornerstone in the literature on separation and attachment, continue to have a potent influence which needs to be reexamined, disputed and replaced. Three arguments are advanced: first, that the evidence for the PDD pattern was never substantial; second, that there is now and has for some time been ample evidence for alternative accounts of separation responses; third, that the PDD account, being premised on a model of the very young child as far less socially competent than recent research has indicated, stands in need of refinement.
Barrett
H
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Department of Psychology, Birkbeck College, London, UK.
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology; D001010:Anxiety, Separation / Q000523:psychology*; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009769:Object Attachment; D011582:Psychological Theory; D013694:Temperament / Q000502:physiology