Child maltreatment and insecure attachment: a meta‐analysis

“( 1987 ) also used a behavioural rating scale to validate the categorization of maltreatment status.”

“While the formation of attachment is complex, theorists suggest that the experience of maltreatment can affect the child’s internal working models and subsequently the child’s relationships with others (Bowlby, 1969/1982; Lamb et al., 1985; Finzi et al., 2001).”

“Adverse childhood experiences are key determinants of insecure attachment (Baer and Martinez 2006; Cicchetti et al. 2006; Cyr et al. 2010; Sabaß et al. 2022) CBASP's interpersonal focus and therapist involvement are designed to address these challenges.”

“Prior research has shown that children who experience abuse and neglect are more likely to develop insecure attachment styles, which can lead to relationship difficulties in young adulthood and midlife (Baer & Martinez, 2006; Riggs & Kaminski, 2010; Taussig & Culhane, 2010; Unger & De Luca, 2014).”

“Maltreated infants are more likely than non-maltreated infants to be insecurely attached to their caregivers (Baer & Martinez, 2006).”

“Homes where maltreatment occurs tend to involve lower parental monitoring (Robertson et al., 2008) and more strained parent-child relationships (Baer & Martinez, 2006).”

“This model is supported by evidence that (a) childhood maltreatment is associated with insecure/disorganised attachment (Baer & Martinez, 2006), (b) early disorganised attachment is associated with higher rates of dissociation in young adults (Byun et al., 2016; Ogawa et al., 1997), and (c) robust…”

“For example, studies have found childhood maltreatment is associated with higher impulsivity [10], increased sexual risk behaviors [5], as well as a higher likelihood of insecure attachment, depression, anxiety, and substance-use disorder [9, 11, 12].”

“Maltreated children often experience disruptions to the development of secure attachments with their caregivers (Baer and Martinez, 2006), leading to difficulties in emotion regulation, coping mechanisms and inter-personal relationships (Szeifert et al., 2025).”

“), lower perceived partner responsiveness, greater variability in feeling understood and cared for by one’s partner (Vaillancourt-Morel et al., 2021), have worse social functioning (Fares-Otero et al., 2023 ), and have diffi - culty forming healthy attachments (Baer & Martinez, 2006).”

“…Music, 2018) and that adopted children – despite being more likely to be insecurely attached than their non-adopted counterparts if maltreated (Baer and Martinez, 2006) – appear hypersensitive to the attachment-related states of mind of their new attachment fi gures (Steele et al., 2003),…”

“Adverse experiences in early childhood may affect children’s brain development and form insecurity attachment (Baer & Martinez, 2006), which may decrease the level of PR (Spenrath et al., 2011).”

“Aside from this central premise of our study, history of childhood trauma may reduce the ability of secure attachment (Baer & Martinez, 2006), a prerequisite for long-term commitment (Bowlby, 1982; Hazan & Shaver, 1987).”

“…between child characteristics and the development of child-parent attachment relationships such as children’s language development (van IJzendoorn et al., 1995), children’s history of maltreatment (Baer & Martinez, 2006; Cyr et al., 2010), and children’s emotion understanding (Cooke et al., 2016).”

“Within family systems, maltreatment is a significant risk factor for the development of insecure and disorganized attachment relationships (Baer & Martinez, 2006; Cicchetti & Valentino, 2006; Cyr et al., 2010).”

“Unless overwritten by substantial counterevidence, such strategies are typically replicated within future relationships, reducing the likelihood of other supportive connections being made in later life (Baer & Martinez, 2006).”

“…can hugely impact a child’s developmental trajectory as they are associated with a multitude of negative developmental outcomes including mental health problems (Norman et al., 2012), lower academic achievement (McGuire and Jackson, 2018) and attachment problems (Baer and Martinez, 2006).”

“Extensive research has shown that children exposed to abuse, neglect and traumatic incidents that are perceived by the child as frightening, such as domestic violence, increase the risk of attachment problems, especially disorganised attachment (Baer and Martinez, 2006).”

“Similarly, while Baer and Martinez (2006) assert that traumatized children develop insecure attachment styles, Deniz (2006) claims that there is a positive significant relationship between abuse experiences and preoccupied attachment style.”

“Past research has shown an association between insecure childhood attachment and both child abuse victimization (e.g., Baer & Martinez, 2006) and parental IPV (Levendosky, Huth-Bocks, & Semel, 2002; Zeanah et al., 1999).”

“Individuals exposed to ACEs form insecure attachments during childhood (Baer & Martinez, 2006 ; Grady et al., 2017 ), while those insecure attachments may persist in adulthood (Grady et al., 2017) and influence their expecta - tions, beliefs, and behaviors in subsequent social interactions (Hinnen…”

“These findings align with existing research demonstrating the pervasive impact of maltreatment on youth development (Arancibia et al., 2023; Baer & Martinez, 2006), but highlight that other protective or resilience factors, such as positive family emotional dynamics, may play a more distinguishable…”

“Insecure and disorganized attachment patterns are associated with enduring dif fi culties in managing stress, increasing susceptibility to adverse emotional outcomes later in life (Ainsworth, 1969; Beatson and Taryan, 2003; Baer and Martinez, 2006).”

“Additionally, while maltreated children are very much likely to be classi fi ed as insecure or dis-organised (Bacon and Richardson, 2001; Baer and Martinez, 2006; Egeland and Sroufe, 1981; Riggs, 2010), such attachment classi fi cations are associated with various developmental dif fi culties (George…”

“These findings are consistent with the theoretical framework that insecure attachment disrupts an individual’s internal working model of self and others [93].”

“Indeed, exposure to childhood maltreatment is a risk factor for both attachment avoidance and psychosis (Baer & Martinez, 2006; Varese et al., 2012).”

“Children who develop positive IWMs have a strong belief in their self-worth and capabilities, while also perceiving those close to them as reliable and trustworthy.”

“Empirical evidence supports this link, showing infants exposed to adversity are significantly more likely to develop insecure attachments than infants who were not exposed (Baer and Martinez 2006).”

“As expected from the turbulence involved in childhood maltreatment, maltreated children are more likely to develop insecure or disorganized internal working models later in life (Baer & Martinez, 2006).”

“…models through sustained effort, leading them to believe that they have the ability to succeed at similar tasks themselves, but parents who experienced childhood maltreatment did not have positive parenting role models (Baer and Martinez 2006), resulting in a low sense of parenting self-efficacy.”

“For instance, a caregiver might intentionally or unintentionally fail to provide adequate nutrition, leading to malnutrition and a range of developmental, psychological, and health issues [1,4].”

“However, it is worth noting that the presence of neglect is notoriously difficult to ascertain and tends to be associated with insecure, but not necessarily disorganized, attachment patterns (Baer and Martinez 2006; Egeland and Sroufe 1981; Morton and Browne 1998).”

“Later studies demonstrated a link between disorganized infant attachment and maltreatment (Baer & Martinez, 2006), maternal unresolved trauma (DeOliveira, Bailey, Moran, & Pederson, 2004), and frightened/frightening care-giving (Abrams, 2001).”