ABSTRACT
Members of the research team began two research projects, one retrospective, the other prospective. The retrospective project was a follow-up study of 66 schoolage children who had experienced separation from their families in a tuberculosis sanatorium at some time be tween the ages of one and four years, and who had sub sequently returned home. The prospective project was undertaken single-handedly by James Robertson, then a social worker, who had had experience in Anna Freud's wartime nursery. Robertson observed young children's behavior as they underwent separation in three different institutional settings. Where possible, he observed the children’s behavior in interaction with parents at home, both prior to the separation and after they were reunited with them. Bowlby himself undertook a third project, in response to a request by the World Health Organization (WHO) to prepare a report on what was known of the fate of children without families. This request led him to read all the available literature on separation and maternal deprivation, and to travel widely to find out what was being done elsewhere about the care of motherless chil dren. The report was published both by WHO as a monograph entitled Maternal Care and Mental Health (Bowlby, 1951) and subsequently in a popular Penguin edition with the title Child Care and the Growth o f Love (Bowlby & Ainsworth, 1965).
