Attachment, parental reactions and coping strategies in difficult situations. A study on maltreated children
This study aims to explore associations between attachment internal working models (IWMs) and expectations concerning parental reactions and coping strategies to face difficult situations in maltreated children. In order to assess attachment IWMs Bowlby's Separation Anxiety Test (Attili, 2001) was administered to 60 abused children (38 males, mean age = 10,9) and 100 controls (44 males, mean age = 8,7). Drawings by Franchini and Maiolo (2005), depicting difficult situations, have been also shown to all subjects and they were asked to hypothesize parents' and character's reactions.