Confidence in protection: Arguments for a narrow definition of attachment

The origins of current attachment constructs are reviewed. Whereas J. Bowlb y's (1969/1982) original theory focused on a biobehavioral safety-regulatin g system with the parent as the child's primary protector, current usage of ten encompasses much more, if not all, of the parent-child relationship. As a result, some of J. Bowlby's central ideas have not been adequately teste d, and the unique contributions of the theory have been obscured. The autho rs argue that differentiating protection from general responsivity or good parenting has many advantages. Most important, it will enable researchers t o test J. Bowlby's notion that parental protection has a singular role to p lay in socioemotional development and has implications for attachment asses sment and interventions in clinical work with families.