A comparative study of attachment behavior in young children with autism or other psychiatric disorders.

The present study examined attachment behavior in children with autism and children with other developmental or psychiatric disorders. The groups were matched on chronological and mental age, IQ, and socioeconomic status. When a modified Strange Situation paradigm was used, no group differences were found in proximity seeking, contact maintenance, proximity avoidance, or contact resistance; the groups also did not differ in their overall security ratings. Attachment security was related to several developmental variables in the autistic group but not in the nonautistic comparison group. This suggests that attachment formation may involve different processes in autistic children than in nonautistic children of equivalent intellectual level.