ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates some of situations and their effects on the formation of attachments - infant limitations or disabilities, social disadvantage, parental disorders, maltreatment and institutional care. It considers a variety of conditions of extreme adversity for the formation of attachment. Conditions affecting the infant were not marked by an increase in insecure attachment, although in the latter case there was evidence of difficulty in making classifications. Poverty on its own was also found to have little specific effect on attachment. In all of these cases, parents who are not encumbered by other disadvantages are usually able to meet the challenges of providing good care and supporting the development of secure attachments. Research in most of the areas surveyed led researchers either to question the validity of standard procedures or to elaborate classification schemes in order to capture the unusual attachment behaviour patterns shown by children whose first attachments developed under extremely adverse conditions.
