Reactive attachment disorder

Reactive attachment disorder is a childhood condition marked by emotionally withdrawn behavior toward caregivers. It is associated with severe neglect or insufficient opportunities to form selective attachments.

Attachment theory: A framework explaining how infants form bonds with caregivers and how those bonds shape development. It describes the selective caregiver bonds that disrupted care can prevent.
Attachment disorder: A disorder involving markedly atypical social behavior linked to severely inadequate caregiving. Reactive attachment disorder is one specific diagnosis within this clinical grouping.
DSM-5-TR: The American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic classification and criteria manual. Its criteria specify the behavioral pattern and caregiving history required for diagnosis.
Romanian orphans: Children raised in Romanian institutions whose development was studied after the fall of the Ceaușescu regime. Their varied outcomes helped reveal how deprivation and later caregiving relate to attachment development.
Institutional deprivation: The developmental effects of growing up in an institution with limited individualized care and social interaction. Severe early deprivation can restrict opportunities to form selective attachments.
Developmental psychopathology: The study of how typical and atypical development unfold across time and contexts. It frames the disorder as a developmental outcome shaped by early caregiving conditions.
ICD-11: The World Health Organization's international classification of diseases and health conditions. It provides an international diagnostic framework for reactive attachment disorder.
English and Romanian Adoptees study: A longitudinal study of children adopted into the United Kingdom after early institutional deprivation in Romania. It documented lasting but variable effects of deprivation and recovery after improved care.
Selective attachment: A young child's preferential emotional bond with one or more familiar caregivers. The disorder is associated with not forming this expected bond after inadequate care.
Child neglect: A caregiver's failure to provide a child with necessary care, supervision, or protection. Neglect is a common context for the insufficient caregiving associated with the diagnosis.

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Separation anxiety disorderCompared with: It concerns impaired attachment behavior, unlike excessive fear of losing an attachment figure.