Egeland and Sroufe1 pointed out the dramatically negative impact
of neglecting or abusive maternal behavior for attachment and personality development, for which they accumulated unique prospective evidence in later
phases of the Minnesota study.2 What do we know about the association between child maltreatment and attachment, what are the mechanisms linking maltreatment with attachment
insecurity and disorganization, and what type
of attachment - based interventions might be most effective?