A Behavioral Perspective of Childhood Trauma and Attachment Issues: Toward Alternative Treatment Approaches for Children with a History of Abuse

Attachment theory provides a useful conceptual framework for understanding trauma and the treatment of children who have been abused. This article examines childhood trauma and attachment issues from the perspective of behavior analysis, and provides a theoretical basis for two alternative treatment models for previously abused children and their foster or adoptive parents: rational cognitive emotive behavioral therapy and trauma-based psychotherapy. These new treatment approaches are based on the integration of attachment theory and basic concepts and principles of rational thought and behavior analysis. These therapeutic models provide dyadic, cognitive, and emotive interventions that encourage behavior change with foster or adopted children who have been abused or neglected as part of their early experiences. The role of emotion in behavioral causation and the teaching and learning of different behavior are central to the treatment process, just as they are central features in healthy parent child relationships. Conclusions are reached that “familial and therapeutic environments” in which perception and previous learning guide parent child interaction are more important than diagnostic orientation, and implications for specific cognitive and behavioral interventions are suggested.