What Are the Links between Attachment Behaviors and Pervasive Developmental Disorders

Children suffering from pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) react to separation in various ways. Different studies have demonstrated that these children can build a differentiated attachment to their mother, who is their primary attachment figure. However, the links between attachment abilities and PDD are unclear: they can be described either in terms of disorder severity, cognitive abilities, language abilities, playing abilities, or mother sensitivity. This paper highlights these different interactions with a literature review. It also assesses certain attachment behaviors in children suffering from PDD during the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) at the Autism Resource Center in PACA (CRA PACA), using a separation-reunion sequence of the child and the parent. Eleven children with an average age of 44 months (ranging from 33 months to 64 months) were divided into two groups: one group with a high severity index (six children with a Child Autism Rating Scale score between 37 and 44), and another group with a low severity index (five children with a score between 30 and 36.5). The results show a difference in attachment behaviors depending on severity. There are more attachment behaviors in the non-severe group, and a tendency to develop more attachment behaviors between separation and reunion in the non-severe group. Individually though, the results are mixed: some children from the severe group had positive ratings for all the behaviors, whereas some children from the non-severe group showed few attachment behaviors. Attachment behaviors are altered in autism disorders, but not unequivocally.