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This article provides an excellent, clear and informative description of the purpose of attachment systems and of the variations that can be noted in the attachment patterns of infants:

Explaining Disorganized Attachment:  Clues from Research on Mild-to-Moderately Undernourished Children in Chile

By Everett Waters and Marta Valenzuela — in J. Solomon & C. George (Eds). Attachment Disorganization. (1999) New York: Guilford Press  [See Table of Contents for this book]

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And – and interesting study on the early research toward the ‘disorganized/disoriented’ insecure attachment category:

“This study reanalyzed the attachment relationships of a sample of 12-month-old maltreated and nonmaltreated infants using the Main and Solomon (in press) classification system for disorganized/disoriented (Type D) attachments. As predicted, we found a preponderance of disorganized/disoriented attachments in the maltreatment group (82%). In contrast, only 19% of the demographically matched Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) comparison group exhibited such Type D relationships.”

Disorganized/disoriented attachment relationships in maltreated infants.

Carlson, Vicki; Cicchetti, Dante; Barnett, Douglas; Braunwald, Karen

Developmental Psychology, Vol 25(4), Jul 1989, 525-531.

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