Wright A, Gray P, Selkirk B, Hunt C, Wright R
School of Psychology, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Psychiatr Psychol Law. 2024 Jan 21;32(2):175-199. doi: 10.1080/13218719.2023.2280537. eCollection 2025.
Child protection systems in Australia continue to disproportionately investigate Aboriginal families and intervene to remove Aboriginal children, applying non-Indigenous constructs and understandings of child development that contribute to these enduring inequities. Attachment theory is one such prevalent framework with significant applications in child protection. While constructions of attachment have attempted to grapple with diversity, its application in Australian child protection policy and practice reflects dominant socio-cultural perceptions as a foundation for decision making that misrepresents Aboriginal families and their children's developmental needs. We position this socio-legal application of attachment specifically, and developmental sciences more broadly, within a long history of settler-colonial intervention, providing a façade of scientific authority that perpetrates further harms on Aboriginal children, families and communities. We offer insights about a new frame for attachment that respects Aboriginal worldviews as part of structural transformations to address those harms.
澳大利亚的儿童保护系统继续以不成比例的方式调查原住民家庭，并进行干预以带走原住民儿童，采用的是对儿童发展的非原住民概念和理解，这加剧了这些长期存在的不平等现象。依恋理论就是这样一个在儿童保护中有重要应用的普遍框架。虽然依恋的概念试图应对多样性，但其在澳大利亚儿童保护政策和实践中的应用反映了占主导地位的社会文化观念，以此作为决策的基础，这歪曲了原住民家庭及其子女的发展需求。我们将依恋理论在社会法律方面的这种应用，特别是更广泛的发展科学，置于长期的定居者殖民干预历史背景中，它提供了一种科学权威的表象，对原住民儿童、家庭和社区造成了进一步的伤害。我们提供了关于一种新的依恋框架的见解，该框架尊重原住民世界观，将其作为解决这些伤害的结构性转变的一部分。
