About this Research Topic

Background

The association between insecure attachment, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and affective disorders among children as well as adolescents and adults does not require enumeration. However, there is a need to build evidence to enable assessments that go beyond multi-axial diagnosis and include trauma-focused care and attachment-based interventions as part of routine clinical practice.

The aim of this Research Topic is to explore the current understanding of attachment, ACEs, and their association with affective disorders among children and adolescents to better inform the care of children and teenagers in clinical practice in non-specialized settings. There is a need to study the complex interaction between attachment patterns and ACEs, its impact on neurobiology, and the multiplicative impact that it can have on the mental health of a growing child. This understanding will help us look at potential ways to address it in an often resource-limited setting. Often times these can be translated into simple age-appropriate interventions that can have a transformative effect on the child and the family. Empowering professionals and parents to use this interventional approach for the universal promotion of child and adolescent mental health should be our next best step. This is of paramount importance because there is a fast-growing need for specialized mental health care for younger children and most countries do not have a sufficient number of professionals to address it.

This Research Topic welcomes research articles, reviews, and mini-reviews, case reports on the following but not limited to:

• Attachment, ACE, and affective disorders- potential mediators and moderators
• Attachment patterns and their interaction with adverse childhood experiences
• Trauma-focused care
• Attachment-based assessment and interventions
• Role of secure attachment in child mental health
• Neurobiology of secure attachment
• Universal promotive interventions for young children and adolescents

Keywords: Attachment, ACE, Attachment-Based Interventions, Child, Depression, Anxiety

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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