Attachment theory, the assumption that the bond formed between young children and their parents lays the foundation for future emotional connections and mental health across the lifespan , was a centerpiece of twentieth century developmental psychology. Indeed, the theory has far reaching ongoing relevance and is so important to scientists’ understanding of what it means to be human, that it has earned a privileged place in the American Museum of Natural History’s Hall of Human Origins, with a video presentation featuring two of the field’s leading researchers, The New School for Social Research’s Howard Steele and Miriam Steele.

The video details Steele and Steele’s work in The New School’s Center for Attachment Research, pursued jointly with the Center for Babies, Toddlers and Families at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where a Group Attachment Based Intervention (GABI) has been developed. GABI aims to prevent child maltreatment and promote secure attachments as the film summarizes. The brief 8-minute film highlights how The New School team traces young children’s levels of cortisone, which reflect the body’s reaction to stress, and shows how the intervention normalizes children’s and parents’ cortisone levels, as secure attachments emerge out of previously insecure and disorganized trauma-ridden difficulties.

You can catch the video at the American Museum of Natural History or online at the museum’s website.