Teachers’ perceptions of an attachment-informed psychosocial programme for schoolchildren with social and emotional problems in Istanbul, Turkey: theory & practice

This paper explores the role positive attachment relationship plays in improving children's social and emotional development. In doing so, we are using the Attachment Theory as our principle theoretical framework. We carried out qualitative interviews with 18 teachers and school staff working in a primary school setting located in a deprived neighbourhood of Istanbul, Turkey. Significant number of children attending this school had experienced social and emotional problems. We devised an innovative psychosocial programme where 40 university student mentors and their professors provided weekly psychosocial support to 160 year-one and year-two primary schoolchildren over a period of 8 months. The objective was to create a secure proximity zone from which the university students acted the older and more knowledgeable secondary caregivers to the schoolchildren. This paper evaluates the teachers' perceptions of the effectiveness of the attachment-informed psychosocial programme on children's social and emotional wellbeing.