Attachment and family therapy: clinical utility of adolescent-family attachment research.

Abstract

The divide separating research and clinical work is narrowing. New therapies have been informed by research from specialties such as developmental psychology and developmental psychopathology. In this article, we attempt to illustrate the usefulness of research on attachment relations for family-based therapy with adolescents. We examine the clinical utility of adolescent attachment research within the context of multidimensional family therapy, an empirically supported treatment model that has incorporated developmental research, including basic research on attachment, in its assessment and intervention framework.