Defining the caregiving system: Toward a theory of caregiving

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present a preliminary framework for conceptualizing the caregiving behavioral system. Following Bowlby (1982), we propose that caregiving is organized within a goal-corrected behavioral system that is reciprocal to attachment. The set-goal of the system is to keep dependent offspring close or safe; its adaptive function is protection of the young. The caregiving system is designed to provide changing levels and forms of protection depending upon the developmental and individual requirements of the young. However, the evolutionary interests of the parent are not entirely overlapping with that of the child because the parent's evolutionary fitness depends on the fitness of all her offspring. Caregiving is one of several motivational systems in the parent. Depending upon circumstances, parents may select from a range of caregiving strategies, which are believed to correspond to the continuum of child attachment relationships (secure, avoidant, ambivalent). The adult caregiving system is believed to be guided by an internal representation or mental model of caregiving. This system has its roots in early attachment—caregiver experiences, but is distinct from them. We suggest that the caregiving representational system becomes consolidated initially in adolescence and undergoes change during the transition to parenthood and as a function of interaction with the child. Once this development is complete, situations of danger and safety should activate the caregiving behavioral system. Under normal circumstances, if the parent's own attachment system is aroused she would appeal to her own attachment figures rather than to the child. However, situations that engender feelings of helplessness in the mother (i.e., which cause her to perceive herself as unable to protect the child) may disorganize or disable the caregiving system on both the behavioral and representational levels.