Exploring Disorganised Attachment: Unravelling Developmental Pathways and Outcomes using Data Mining (360G-Wellcome-208505_Z_17_Z)

Disorganised attachment is an important assessment of infant mental health, introduced by Main and Solomon (1990). Disorganisation is thought to result from an infant having in some way experienced trauma within the context of the relationship with their caregiver (e.g. observing severe domestic violence). Infants classified as disorganised have an elevated risk of psychological problems, most notably conduct disorders (Fearon et al. 2012). The possibility of a finer-grained measure emerged out of archival research, under Duschinsky's New Investigator Award, on the original Berkeley dataset from which disorganised attachment was first identified. As a result of the significant stakes for research and clinical practice, we have been offered unprecedented access to a remarkable longitudinal dataset to explore a) how the finer-grained measure fares against the standard construct in predicting a range of negative outcomes, and b) whether particular forms of disorganisation have specific antecedents. Given that the goal is exploratory and the array of relevant measures is extensive, data mining will be used rather than hypothesis-testing. The research offers the prospect of a significant transformation of research in this area. Three focus groups with clinicians will be conducted to facilitate clinical input and translation.