Interviewers' notes about section A: Separation anxiety

Most children have strong attachment bonds to key adults in their lives - parents, grandparents, nannies and so on. Technically, these adults are described as 'attachment figures'. The bonds between children and their attachment figures provide the children with security and comfort particularly in times of stress. Some children don't form these bonds, and nor are these bonds always obvious in older teenagers either. Close friendships with other young people are obviously important but we are primarily interested in attachments to adults as far as this interview is concerned. It is only if the parent says that the child isn't specially attached to any adult that you will ask about attachment to other children or young people.

Some children experience a lot of distress as a result of worries that something bad will happen to their attachment figures or that they will be separated from their attachment figures. This is what the section on separation anxiety is about.

It is clearly not possible to ask whether a child is anxious about separation from his or her attachment figures if the child doesn't have any attachment figures. So the first stage is obviously to find out about attachment figures. That is what we are trying to do with the first question that we ask of parents, 'Is [child's name] specially attached to the following adults?' This isn't meant to be a list of everyone that the child is a little attached to - it is specifically about the child's main attachment figures. So if the parent says 'Yes' to all or nearly all of the options, you need to tell them that we want to know about the main attachment figures, and suggest they say 'Yes' to no more than 4 or 5 categories. The procedure for interviewing adolescents is similar. To avoid repetition, these notes generally use the parent interview to illustrate the general principles that also apply to the adolescent interview.

Once you have identified the attachment figures, the questions about separation anxiety begin with question A2. 'Overall, in the last 4 weeks, has s/he been particularly worried about being separated from his/her attachment figures?' Note that the reference period is the last 4 weeks. In subsequent questions, your also need to emphasise that we are interested in how the child is usually and not in how she or he is on the occasional 'off day'. This should be stressed every two or three questions until you are sure that the respondent knows.

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Last modified : 05/09/09