Faculty

Miriam Steele is the Alfred J. and Monette C. Marrow Professor of Psychology at The New School for Social Research, and Co-Director of the Center For Attachment Research. Her work aims to bridge the world of psychoanalytic thinking and clinical practice with contemporary research in child development. Her research began with the study “Intergenerational Patterns of Attachment,” which demonstrated how the link between parents’ experiences of attachment in their childhoods predict attachment relationships in the next generation, namely their children. This work was important in initiating the concept of “reflective functioning” and provided empirical data to demonstrate the importance of parental states of mind in the social and emotional development of their children.

Dr. Steele’s further research involved an NIH funded study on the efficacy of an innovative attachment-based intervention with vulnerable families, a collaborative venture with colleagues at the Rose Kennedy Center, Albert Einstein School of Medicine. Current projects include exploring attachment and body representations across a range of individuals including the transmission of body representations from mothers to their daughters: studies of body representations in individuals with physical disabilities; and research exploring smart phone use and its impact on the parent-child relationship. Dr. Steele embraces the inter-disciplinary focus at The New School with courses which blend psychology and Parsons School of Design students in the field of Child and Adolescent Global Mental Health and she enjoys teaching the ‘Psychology for Designers’ class. 

PhD 1990, University College, London

Steele, H., Murphy, A., Bonuck, A, Meissner, P., & Steele, M. (2019). 

      Randomly control trial report on the effectiveness of Group Attachment- 

      Based Intervention (GABI©): Improvements in the parent-child

       relationship not seen in the control group. Developmental

      Psychopathology, 31(1), 203-217.

Beebe, B., Hoven, C., Kaitz, M., Steele, M., Musa, G., Margolis, A.,

      Ewing, J., Sossin, M., & Lee, S. (2020). Urgent engagement in 9/11     

      pregnant widows and their infants: Transmission of Trauma. Infancy,

      25, 165-189. https://doi.org/10.1111/infa.12323

Hillman S, Hodges J, Steele M, Cirasola A, Asquith K, Kaniuk J. (2020)  

       Assessing changes in the internal worlds of early- and late-adopted

       children using the Story Stem Assessment Profile (SSAP). Adoption &

       Fostering. 44, 4, 377-396. doi:10.1177/0308575920971132

Forslund, T., Granqvist, P., van IJzendoorn, M., Sagi-Schwartz, A.,

       Glaser, D., Steele, M., et al (2021) Attachment goes to court: child

       protection and custody issues, Attachment & Human

       Development, DOI: 10.1080/14616734.2020.1840762

Steele, M., Steele, H. & Murphy, A. (in press) Bringing Reflective

        Functioning to the Community: Aspects of psychotherapy process in the

        Group Attachment Based Intervention. Psychoanalytic Study of the

        Child.

Bekar, O., Steele, M., Shahmoon-Shanok, R., & Steele, H. (2018) Mothers’ Mental State Talk and Preschool Children’s Social-Behavioral Functioning: A Multidimensional Account. Journal of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychotherapy, 17:2, 119-133.

Archer, M., Steele, M., Lan, J., Jin, X., Herreros, F., & Steele, H. (2015). Attachment between infants and mothers in China. International Journal Of Behavioral Development, 39(6), 485-491.

Steele, M., Steele, H., Bate, J., Knafo, H., Kinsey, M. Bonuck, K., Meisner, P. & Murphy, A. (2014) Looking From the Outside In: The Use of Video in Attachment-Based Interventions. (.pdf) Attachment & Human Development, 16, 402–415. Murphy, A., Steele, M., Dube, S.R., Bonuck, K., Meissner, P., Bate, J., Goldman, H., Steele, H. (2013) Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Questionnaire and Adult Attachment Interview (AAI): Implications for Parent Child Relationships. (.pdf) Child Abuse and Neglect, 38, 224-233. Beebe, B. & Steele, M. (2013) How does microanalysis of mother-infant communication inform maternal sensitivity and infant attachment? (.pdf) Attachment & Human Development, 15, 583-602.