Children with disinhibited social engagement disorder show reduced reticence with strangers, do not check back with their caregiver after venturing away, and may willingly leave with an unfamiliar adult. The recent DSM-5 has moved away from an attachment framework to understand disinhibited social engagement behavior (DSEB) due to studies indicating its presence in previously institutionalized children even after these children are adopted and show a selective, more secure attachment with their substitute caregiver (e.g. Chisholm et al., 1998). This meta-analysis aims to clarify the size of the associations between DSEB and attachment insecurity or disorganization. It also examines whether studies effect sizes differ according to various moderators (e.g., child age, type of attachment and DSEB measures). The results (k = 24) showed that the associations between DSEB and attachment insecurity (d = 0.48) or attachment disorganization (d = 0.47) were of small magnitude. There were no publication biases. As for moderator analyses on both attachment insecurity and disorganization, the effect sizes in studies using DSEB observational measures (respectively d = 0.63 and 0.57) were of moderate magnitude and stronger than those in studies not using an observational component (respectively d = 0.28 and 0.32). Given these small-to-moderate associations, attachment can be considered a relationship process associated with DSEB, and attachment-informed interventions could be potential tools to reduce DSEB in children. Nevertheless, given the sizable unshared portion of variance between DSEB and child attachment, future studies should examine other variables related to caregiving and noncaregiving contexts to further understand DSEB.
Keywords: Child attachment; Disinhibited social engagement disorder; Disorganization; Institutionalization; Maltreatment; Neglect.