This series of highly practical guides provides social work and health professionals who work with adolescents and their families with concise and up-to-date information on adolescents' problems. The guides are designed for use in assessment and intervention with clients and in planning training or therapeutic programmes, and can also be used for teaching purposes. The Hints for Parents sections which appear at the back of each guide may be photocopied and given to clients; the questionnaires, checklists and assessment forms which appear in the appendices are also copyright-free.

The aims of this guide are to provide the practitioner with the means to assess parental bonding and infantile attachments. A description of infantile attachments, a look at contentious issues, evidence for and against the a critical perioda and a proforma to describe and rate parental attachments are included.