Children’s Memories of Removal: A Test of Attachment Theory

We report a study of parents’ attachment orientations and children's autobiographical memory for an experience that according to Bowlby's (1982) attachment theory should be particularly threatening—children's forced separation from their parents. It was hypothesized that individual differences in parents’ attachment orientations would be associated with children's distress and memory for this highly traumatic event. Children (n = 28) were observed during forced removal from home or school by Child Protective Services due to allegations of child maltreatment. Children's memory for the removal was tested 1 week later, and biological parents (n = 28) completed an adult attachment measure. Parental attachment anxiety significantly predicted children's distress during less stressful phases of the removal, R2 = .25, and parents’ attachment-related avoidance predicted fewer correct memory reports from the children (i.e., fewer hits to open-ended questions, R2 = .16, and fewer hits to direct questions, R2 = .27). The findings indicate that attachment theory provides important guidance for understanding children's autobiographical memory for traumatic events.