When all is at sea: Attachment insecurity as a mediator of risk in Tamil asylum-seeking children.

Limited data exists on the role of attachment in influencing the development and wellbeing of refugee children. Herein we describe patterning and correlates of attachment in an Australian sample of adolescent Tamil refugees. Sixty-eight adolescents, aged 10-18, were assessed for trauma exposure, mental health problems and pattern of attachment.

Breaching the family walls: Modelling the impact of prolonged visa insecurity on asylum-seeking children.

Objective: Children in asylum-seeking families are increasingly subject to deterrent host nation policies that undermine security in the post-migration context, however, little is known on the mental health consequences of such policy. This study examined the impact of prolonged visa insecurity on child mental health, by comparing two cohorts of refugee children entering Australia between 2010 and 2013, distinguished by visa security.

Methods: The insecure visa sample comprised children from Tamil asylum-seeking families, while the secure visa sample was drawn from refugee families participating in the multi-ethnic 'Building a New Life in Australia' cohort study.

Ghosts, tigers and landmines in the nursery: Attachment narratives of loss in Tamil refugee children with dead or missing fathers.

Objective: To build an account of how bereaved Tamil refugee and asylum seeker children, resettled in Australia, had processed the loss of their dead or missing fathers.

Method: Phenomenological and discourse analysis was applied to attachment narratives of nine children (aged 11-17 years) and their surviving mothers in families that lost fathers in war-related circumstances. The narratives were analysed through the lens of Crittenden's Dynamic-Maturational Model of Attachment and Adaptation (DMM) and Klass' cross-cultural model of grief.

When things get complicated: At-risk attachment in children and adolescents with chronic pain.

Pain is a signal of danger, and danger activates the attachment system. When a parent responds to a child's pain with appropriate protection and comfort, more often than not, the pain resolves. But what happens in families when a child's pain becomes chronic and continues to signal a danger that has long passed? This study explored patterns of attachment in 48 children and adolescents with chronic functional pain and 48 healthy controls using structured attachment interviews.