Narratives in assessment and research on the development of attachments in maltreated children

Major physical or sexual abuse, and gross neglect, leave physical effects that are visible on examination or can be made visible via X-rays, scans, etc. However, the accompanying psychological and emotional trauma, and chronic emotional abuse and neglect itself, can have equally shattering effects. These are effects not upon flesh and bone, but upon children’s understanding and expectations of attachments and family relationships, their capacities for the regulation and recognition of emotion, and hence their emotional and behavioural development.