Children of all ages need to feel understood, cherished and protected by their parents in order to develop a sense of security essential to lifelong mental health. An abundance of evidence now points to the foundational significance of secure parent-child attachment for social, emotional and even physical health, the development of cognitive skills, resilience and compassion across childhood and all the way into old age. Despite this, much of the science about the importance, meaning and manifestations of parent-child attachment still exists in silos. Ongoing parent-child relational factors are often sidelined in models of direct care, even though these very factors may be contributing to increasingly entrenched and distressed patterns. Crucial opportunities for repairing and fortifying attachment while both parent and child are still deeply affecting one another are thereby lost. Furthermore, knowledge in academic silos is least likely to reach families already carrying unjust burdens of stress impacting their primary caretaking relationships.

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