Attachment theory and research are drawn upon in many applied settings, including family courts, but misunderstandings are widespread and sometimes result in misapplications. The aim of this consensus statement is, therefore, to enhance understanding, counter misinformation, and steer family-court utilisation of attachment theory in a supportive, evidence-based direction, especially with regard to child protection and child custody decision-making. The article is divided into two parts. In the first, we address problems related to the use of attachment theory and research in family courts, and discuss reasons for these problems. To this end, we examine family court applications of attachment theory in the current context of the best-interest-of-the-child standard, discuss misunderstandings regarding attachment theory, and identify fac

Bowlby proposed that the individual's social experiences, as early as in infancy, contribute to the construction of Internal Working Models (IWMs) of attachment, which will later guide the individual's expectations and behaviors in close relationships all along his or her life. The qualitative, individual characteristics of these models reflect the specificity of the individual's early experiences with attachment figures. The attachment literature globally shows that the qualities of IWMs are neither gender specific nor cultural specific. Procedures to evaluate IWMs in adulthood have been well established, based on narrative accounts of childhood experiences. Narrative procedures at earlier ages (e.g., in the preschool years) have been proposed, such as Bretherton's Attachment Story Completion Task (ASCT), to evaluate attachment representations. More than 500 ASCT narratives of preschoolers, coming from five different countries, have been collected, in the perspective of examining possible interactions between gender and culture regarding attachment representations. A specific Q-Sort coding procedure (CCH) has been used to evaluate several dimensions of the narratives. Girls' narratives appeared as systematically more secure than those of same-age boys, whatever their culture. The magnitude of gender differences, however, varied between countries. Taylor's model of gender-specific responses to stress and Harwood's and Posada's hypothesis on inter-cultural differences regarding caregiving are evoked to understand the differences across gender and countries.

RESUMENAlgunos enfoques en psicología plantean que el bienestar de las personas se asocia a una visión correcta y cercana de la realidad social. Sin embargo, gran cantidad de estudios han mostrado de manera consistente que para proteger la imagen que poseen de sí mismas, las personas tienden a analizar la información social de forma tendenciosa (sesgada). Dada esta aparente contradicción, en el presente trabajo se relacionaron una serie de medidas de estos sesgos cognitivos entre sí, junto con otras de bienestar subjetivo. Los resultados indican la existencia de una serie de relaciones significativas entre los diferentes sesgos, así como con medidas de bienestar, observándose que, por un lado, las personas sesgan de diferentes formas la información social y, por otro, que esta forma de pensamiento se relaciona con una mayor felicidad personal. Se discuten las implicancias de estos resultados tanto para la teoría como para la práctica en psicología. PALABRAS CLAVE: Bienestar subjetivo; Sesgos cognitivos. ABSTRACTSome approaches in psychology suggest that well-being is linked to a correct and accurate view of social reality. However, many studies have consistently shown that, in order to protect their positive image of themselves, people tend to analyze social information in a biased manner. Given this apparent contradiction, the present study examined the relationship between a series of measures associated with these cognitive biases and subjective well-being. The results indicated significant correlations between different cognitive biases and well-being measures. These results demonstrate that people bias social information in different ways, and that this type of thinking is associated with increased personal happiness. Implications of these results for both theory and practice in psychology are discussed

El presente artículo realiza una revisión de la literatura sobre la influencia del maltrato infantil en la conformación de las representaciones del apego. Se describen los principales postulados teóricos respecto de los efectos del maltrato en los procesos defensivos, los sistemas de memoria y las estrategias de apego, elementos discutidos a través de la presentación de un modelo integrativo, el cual es contrastado con estudios empíricos. Se constata que el maltrato infantil afecta la calidad de las representaciones del apego, sin embargo se aprecia que los estudios no logran dar cuenta de toda la complejidad del fenómeno del maltrato. Los postulados teóricos abordados en este trabajo son marginalmente puestos a prueba en las investigaciones que se reportan.

Conflicto de InteresesLos autores de este artículo declaran que no tienen ningún conflicto de intereses.