自闭症儿童依恋研究述评

A Review of Attachment in Children With Autism

研究者曾一度认为自闭症儿童无法建立起依恋关系。本文系统回顾了自闭症儿童依恋研究的最新进展,将自闭症儿童是否存在依恋行为(尤其是安全型依恋行为)、依恋发展解释理论、研究方法、类型分布以及影响因素等问题进行了详细梳理,并结合系统分析,提出有关自闭症儿童依恋研究的几点启示。

For a long time, children with autism have been thought to be unable to establish attachment relationship with their parents. This paper presents a systematic review of the latest development in the following aspects of the attachment in autistic children. The first is whether autistic children exhibit attachment behaviors, secure attachment behaviors in particular. Many studies at home and abroad have confirmed that there exist attachment behaviors among autistic children, and they can develop a secure attachment rela- tionship. This provides a theoretical premise for families with autistic children to establish good parent-child relationships. The second is whether there is a theory that can explain the development of the attachment behaviors among children with autism. Some researchers have proposed pervasive developmental disorders interpretive theory, disorder of the attention and arousal systems interpretive theory, and primary deficit to hinder the development of attachment theory. In addition, some researches have studied certain symptoms of autism from the perspective of regression, mainly focusing on the question as to whether regression is a critical phenomenon or an accidental occurrence among children with autism, and explored the relationship between regression and the language, social connections and attachment behaviors of autistic children. The authors maintain that traditional attachment development theory can＇ t be completely applicable to autistic children. The third is whether there are any research approaches to the attachment behaviors in autistic children. As to this question, re- searchers have given their answers, with some proposing the Strange Situation Procedure, some advocating the Attachment Q-Sort, while others suggesting Attachment Interview, and so on. However, there have emerged considerable arguments and doubts about the ecologi- cal validity of these approaches during the process of actual application. And due to the doubts about the Strange Situation Procedure, more and more researchers have attempted to adopt the Q-set approach to examine the attachment behaviors among autistic children. The fourth is whether there are any distribution patterns of the attachment developmental types and influential factors in the development of attachment behaviors among children with autism. The authors have found out in his research that there exists a large disparity between the distribution patterns, probably because different research tools and judgment criteria have been adopted. In the meanwhile, difference between research samples is a key factor, since foreign research on autism these years more often than not use children with high function autism as their subjects. Current research on the influential factors of the development of attachment behaviors among autistic children mainly focuses on the following two aspects ： 1 ） the relationship between attachment and parents＇ sensitivity; 2） the relationship between attachment and spectrum disorder in children with autism. After a thorough study of the above-mentioned two aspects, the authors hold that primary deficit and its development in autistic children are the significant factors that influence the attachment development in children with autism. In the final part of the paper, based on the analysis of the research on the attachment relationship in children with autism, the authors present their thoughts in such respects as the importance of attachment in children with autism, the application of traditional attachment theory, and the further exploration into the influential factors of attachment relationship, etc.