Attachment Representations in Internationally Adopted Children

See
discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232966639
Internal working models of

attachment in internationally
adopted children
Article in Attachment & Human Development January 2012
CITATIONS
READS
71
4 authors, including:
Carmen Moreno
Universidad de Sevilla
113 PUBLICATIONS 511 CITATIONS
SEE PROFILE
Ana Lpez
Universidad de Sevilla
66 PUBLICATIONS 293 CITATIONS
SEE PROFILE
Available from: Ana Lpez

Retrieved on: 10 September 2016
This article was downloaded by: [Fac Psicologia/Biblioteca]

On: 05 November 2012, At: 00:09
Publisher: Routledge
Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered
office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK
Attachment & Human Development

Publication details, including instructions for authors and
subscription information:
http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rahd20
Attachment representations in
internationally adopted children
a
Maite Romn , Jess Palacios , Carmen Moreno & Ana Lpez
Department of Developmental Psychology, University of Seville,

Spain
b
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Seville,

Spain
Version of record first published: 30 Oct 2012.
To cite this article: Maite Romn, Jess Palacios, Carmen Moreno & Ana Lpez (2012): Attachment
representations in internationally adopted children, Attachment & Human Development, 14:6,
585-600
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14616734.2012.727257
PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-andconditions
This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any
substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing,
systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden.
The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation
that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any
instructions, formulae, and drug doses should be independently verified with primary
sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings,
demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or
indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.

Vol. 14, No. 6, November 2012, 585600
Attachment representations in internationally adopted children

Maite Romana*, Jesus Palaciosa, Carmen Morenoa and Ana Lopezb
a
Department of Developmental Psychology, University of Seville, Spain; bDepartment of

Experimental Psychology, University of Seville, Spain
Downloaded by [Fac Psicologia/Biblioteca] at 00:09 05 November 2012
(Received 20 March 2011; nal version received 20 April 2012)

Using the Story Stem Assessment Prole, attachment representations were
analyzed in a group of 40 internationally adopted children studied after an
average of 40 months since their adoption. These children were compared to 58
children living with their birth families and with no experience of maltreatment,
and to 50 children who were living in Spanish institutions. All of the children were
between four and eight years of age at the time of study. Findings indicated that
the adoptees representations were more negative than those of the control group,
but similar to those of the institutionalized children. The associations between
dierent indicators of attachment representations, as well as the role of adopted
childrens characteristics (pre-adoption experiences, adoption age, time with the
adoptive family) were also analyzed. The results showed a long-term impact of
early adversity, a certain degree of heterogeneity in the attachment representations of both the adopted and the institutionalized children, and the role played
by certain background and individual variables.
Keywords: adoption;
institutionalization
attachment
narratives;
attachment
representations;
Introduction
Attachment theory (Bowlby, 1958, 1969) oers one of the main perspectives for
understanding emotional development. Empirical eorts were initially centered on
behavioral aspects, with the introduction of the Strange Situation by Ainsworth,
Blehar, Waters, and Wall (1978) having given a major boost to methodological
development of this theory. Later, with the focus of research turning to older
children and adults, a move to the representational level was required (Main,
Kaplan, & Cassidy, 1985), and the construct of attachment representations (ARs)
was approached in greater depth (Bretherton, Ridgeway, & Cassidy, 1990;
Crittenden, 1990), creating an opportunity for the empirical study of verbal and
non-verbal behaviors that reected internal working models of self and attachment
gures. The current study adds to knowledge of childrens ARs, which are built
according to experiences of close interaction and the emotions associated with them,
and serve as a guide for perceiving oneself and others, as well as interpreting ones
emotions and regulating ones emotional behavior (Bowlby, 1969, 1973, 1980;
Bretherton et al., 1990; Cassidy & Shaver, 2008; Crittenden, 1990; Main et al., 1985;
Thompson, 2008).
*Corresponding author. Email: maiteroman@us.es

ISSN 1461-6734 print/ISSN 1469-2988 online
2012 Taylor & Francis
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14616734.2012.727257
http://www.tandfonline.com
586
M. Roman et al.
Whilst most children experience continuity in their attachment relationships

throughout childhood, some childrens early development is marked by radical
discontinuity in care and relationships (Juer et al., 2011; van IJzendoorn et al.,
2011). Adoption oers a unique example of this discontinuity, as it involves a radical
change of family context. In the case of inter-country adoption, most of the children
involved spent a certain amount of time in institutional settings before their
adoption, with little opportunity to develop secure attachment relationships
(Zeanah, 2000). Through their adoption, children become stable members of
families who are deemed suitable to respond to their physical and psychological
needs. Changes are thus to be expected in their attachment system (Juer et al.,
2011).
While research into adopted childrens attachment behaviors is abundant (see
meta-analysis by van den Dries, Juer, van IJzendoorn, & Bakermans-Kranenburg,
2009), studies exploring their ARs are more uncommon (e.g., Steele, Hodges,
Kaniuk, Steele, Hillman, & Asquith, 2008). Although the internal working models of
attachment tend to stabilize once formed, they are active constructions which, not
without some resistance, must be restructured in order to continue being eective
when circumstances change (Bowlby, 1980; Bretherton et al., 1990; Main et al.,
1985). The radical change in emotional relationships implied by adoption should nd
a reection in the adopted childrens ARs. The three main goals of the current study
were to analyze: the long term impact of early adversity on ARs, the degree of
internal coherence between the dierent indicators of these representations, and the
inuence of the childrens background and individual characteristics on them.
Our rst goal was to explore the impact of early adversity on adopted childrens
internal working models of attachment assessed through their ARs and the extent to
which more positive experiences in their new families are eective in helping them
overcome past adversity. By comparing children whose adverse circumstances
changed dramatically (through adoption) to another group for whom adversity
remained more stable and positive attachment relationships to new adult gures were
more unlikely (institutional care), our study sought to explore the long term impact of
early adversity on the ARs. A third set of children without early adversity and with no
discontinuity in their family served as a control group for the comparisons.
One of the main contributions in this under-explored area was from a British
longitudinal research whose principal goal was the study of ARs in late adopted
children with previous experience of maltreatment (Hodges & Steele, 2000; Hodges,
Steele, Hillman, Henderson, & Kaniuk, 2003, 2005; Steele et al., 2008). Using the
Story Stem Assessment Prole (SSAP), a group of late adopted children in the UK
were compared to children adopted before 12 months who had not suered previous
abuse. In comparison, the children in the late adopted group presented more
indicators of avoidance and disorganization, more negative representations of adults
and children, and a greater presence of aggression in their narratives.
In Greece, Vorria et al. (2006) used another story-stem task (the Attachment
Story Completion Task; Bretherton et al., 1990) to study the ARs of adopted
children who had been previously institutionalized. The results revealed that,
compared to a control group of children, the adoptees had lower scores for story
resolution, narrative coherence, and pro-social themes, as well as higher scores for
avoidance. Similarly, other European studies that included adopted and foster care
children found more negative ARs than in the control groups (Bovenschen,
Nowacki, Roland, & Spangler, 2009; Euillet, Spencer, Troupel-Cremel, Fresno, &
587
Zaouche-Gaudron, 2008; Minnis et al., 2006; Nowacki, Roland, Bovenschen, &

Spangler, 2009). These results are in line with those obtained from the study of a
group of institutionalized children in Japan (Katsurada, 2007), with deteriorated
ARs compared to a control sample.
The ARs are typically studied using a number of verbal and nonverbal indicators
in response to a story-stem procedure (Bettmann & Lundahl, 2007; Bretherton et al.,
1990; Hodges et al., 2005; Oppenheim, 2006; Page, 2001; Steele et al., 2008). In the
case of SSAP, these indicators are the dimensions of security, insecurity, avoidance,
and disorganization. Our second goal concerns the degree of internal coherence
between these indicators. In the British adopted children studied one and two years
following the rst post-adoption assessment, the security in their ARs increased and
their avoidance decreased over time, but their indicators of insecurity and
disorganization remained stable in both the early and the late adopted groups
(Hodges & Steele, 2000; Hodges, Steele, Hillman, Henderson, & Kaniuk, 2003, 2005;
Steele et al., 2008). The consolidation of some positive contents versus the stability of
some negative ones reects the complexity of ARs restructuring and the persistence
of some diculties (Hodges et al., 2005). As Steele et al. (2008) suggested, it seems
much easier to incorporate positive representations than to extinguish negative
ones. This suggests that in a one-time study, as reported herein, the adoptees ARs
would consist of a heterogeneous picture, with the inter-correlations between
dierent AR indicators showing less internal consistency than in cases without
discontinuity in the history of attachment relationships.
Finally, our third goal was to study the impact of the childrens background (e.g.,
history of adversity) and personal characteristics (e.g., age, gender) on the ARs.
Regarding the former, a particular interest was to study the potential impact of
family experience before institutionalization. Several adoption studies have shown
that children with only institutional experience fare less well after their adoption
than those with prior family experience (Miller, Chan, Comfort, & Tirella, 2005; van
den Dries, Juer, van IJzendoorn, & Bakermans-Kranenburg, 2010), but these
studies analyzed growth, motor development, and cognitive development. The
question is thus whether early family experiences (as opposed to only institutional
rearing) contribute to alleviating the impact of early adversity on childrens
emotional development (in our case, ARs).
In what concerns the role of other childrens characteristics, the age at the time of
adoption seems to have a clear moderating eect on their attachment behaviors with
their adoptive parents (van den Dries et al., 2009), so that the dierences between
adopted and non-adopted children tend to disappear if the adoption takes place
before one year of age. The eect of the adoption age on ARs is less clear, showing
statistical signicance in some studies (Kaniuk, Steele, & Hodges, 2004), but not in
others (Euillet et al., 2008). Although sibling adoption has been shown to play a
protective role in some developmental areas (McRoy, 1999; Rushton, Dance,
Quinton, & Mayes, 2001), its relevance for ARs has not yet been explored. Gender
has been found to play a role in some studies (more security in girls in Pierrehumbert
et al., 2009), but not in others (gender dierences in one-parent but not in twoparents children in Gogler-Tippelt & Konig, 2007). Finally, childrens cognitive
development appears to have some inuence on the ARs, as attested by studies on
both adopted (Vorria et al., 2006) and non-adopted children (Stievenart, Roskam,
Meunier, & van de Moortele, 2011). In the latter study, childrens reasoning
capacities were shown to have an inuence on security in ARs.
588
M. Roman et al.
Consistent with the extant literature: (1) it was expected that the ARs of the
adopted children would be impaired by their early adversity, although they were
expected to be more positive (security) and less negative (avoidance, insecurity,
disorganization) than those of the institutionalized children. When compared to a
control group, the adoptees ARs were expected to vary as a function of time
since their adoption so that the more time in the adoptive home, the less dierent
the adoptees would look to the control group); (2) The ARs of the adopted and
institutionalized children were expected to form a more heterogeneous picture
than those of the group without early adversity, with more internal coherence
between the dierent indicators of ARs; and (3) the adoptees with more negative
pre-adoption backgrounds (no family experience, longer institutionalization)
were expected to show more impaired ARs than those less exposed to early
adversity.
Method
Participants
The sample consisted of a group of 40 children of Russian origin who had been
internationally adopted by Spanish families, a comparison group of 50 children who
lived in Spanish institutions, and a control group of 58 children without family
adversity who lived with their birth families in the same community. The children
were all between four and eight years of age at assessment.
Russia was chosen as the country of origin for several reasons. It is the main
country of origin for inter-country adoption in Spain (Ministerio de Sanidad,
Pol tica Social e Igualdad, 2012). While children from other countries (e.g., China)
tend to be adopted between their rst and second birthday and usually after only
orphanage experience, children from Russia are usually adopted older, some after
orphanage experience only, but others after a signicant time spent with a family
prior to institutionalization. Finally, children adopted from Eastern Europe have
been found to display greater diculty with the formation of new attachments (van
den Dries et al., 2009).
Adoptive families were recruited through two agencies working with Russian
adoptions in Spain. Almost all of the families contacted by the researchers agreed to
participate and only a few (n 10) refused, due mainly to some incumbent problems
(the death of a relative, for instance). Children in the Spanish institutions were seen
with the authorization and mediation of the child protection authority of the region.
In the case of the control group, 10 schools (which represented dierent socioeconomic levels) from various neighborhoods of a major city in southern Spain were
chosen at random, and the collaboration of the families was requested. Of those
approached, 10% chose not to participate.
The Russian children were adopted at a mean age of 36 months (SD 15.97)
and, at the time of the study, had been with their families for an average of 40
months (SD 14.25). A total of 72.5% were boys and 27.5% girls, which reects the
typical gender balance of Eastern European adoptions in Spain (Pascual, 2000).
Almost all of these children (95%) had been institutionalized before their adoption,
with an average of 26 months institutional experience (SD 13.78). While half these
children had eectively spent their whole life in an orphanage, the other half (52.5%)
had an average of 21 months (SD 18.91) of family experience before their
institutionalization. Some of the children (22.5%) were adopted with a sibling. Only
589
children who had been with their adoptive family for at least nine months were included
in the study, to ensure that they had sucient mastery of their new language.
The Spanish institutionalized children had mostly been separated from their
families after experiencing severe abuse and neglect, and after family preservation
attempts. They lived in relatively small protection centers, usually with fewer than 20
children in each. The institutions were well staed, with qualied caregivers who
worked in weekly shifts, making it more dicult for the children to form stable
emotional relationships with the changing adults. Many of these children were rst
sent to emergency units, where they remained for a few months before a more
permanent decision was made. Those who remained institutionalized were then sent
to more permanent centers, with similar structural arrangements in terms of daily
life, sta, etc. Approximately half (52%) the institutionalized group was girls and
48% boys. All had family experience prior to their institutionalization, with an
average of 64 months of family life (SD 20.68). The average duration of
institutionalization was 14 months (SD 17.03). All children in the group had
suered some form of abuse and/or neglect.
At the time of the study, the average age was 76 months (SD 14.22) for the
adoptees, 78 months (SD 17.89) for the institutionalized children, and 75 months
(SD 14.61) for the control group. Table 1 shows the age at time of the study and
gender distribution in the three groups.
Measures
ARs were assessed using a Spanish translation of the 13 narratives of the Story
Stem Assessment Prole (SSAP) (Hodges, Steele, Hillman, & Henderson, 2003),
where a child is given the beginning of each story which contains a problematic
situation played out with dolls and animal gures representing a family scenario,
and then asked to show and tell what happens next. This allows an assessment
of the childs perceptions and expectations of attachments and relationships,
without asking directly about his or her family. It invites both verbal and
nonverbal means of communication. This is important because nonverbal
communication is presumed to provide access to feelings and memories which
cannot be recalled verbally.
The SSAP comprises ve story stems (Crying outside, Little pig, Stamping
elephant, Picture from school, and Bikes) originally devised by Hodges for use in
clinical and research settings, with an original, clinically based coding system. Eight
additional stems (Spilled juice, Mums headache, Threes a crowd, Burnt hand, Lost
keys, Bathroom shelf, Burglar in the dark, and Exclusion) from the MacArthur
Story Stem Battery (MSSB; Bretherton, Oppenheim, Buchsbaum, Emde, & the
McArthur Narrative Group, 2003) were included in the protocol, for a total of 13
story stems (Hodges, Steele, Hillman, & Henderson, 2003). The stems are always
administered in the same order. All of the sessions were video and audio recorded
and transcribed in terms of both verbal and non-verbal contents.
According to the coding rules (Hodges, Hillman, & Steele, 2004), each of the 13
stories was rated for the presence of 32 themes. These themes broadly cover the
following areas: adult and child representations, aggressive manifestations,
indicators of avoidance, aspects of positive adaptation, and indicators of
disorganization. Data reduction techniques (Hodges & Hillman, 2009) have shown
that these 32 themes reduce reliably and meaningfully to four global constructs or
(3)
(2)
(1)
M 1.23a,b
(1.05 SD)
M 14.31 b
(19.54 SD)
M 64
(20.68 SD)
M 64
(20.81 SD)
M 14
(17.03 SD)
M .56a
(1.14 SD)
M 26.97a
(25.38 SD)
M 21
(18.91 SD)
M9
(15.34 SD)
M 26
(13.78 SD)
(3)
M 78
(17.89 SD)
48% boysa
A Adopted children; I Institutionalized children; C Control children.

Eect sizes: * small, ** medium, *** large.
Groups with the same superscript (a, b) are signicantly dierent.
Time in institutionalization
Time in family before

institution
Age at institutionalization
Language competence
Developmental status
Gender
M 76
(14.22 SD)
72.5% boysa,b
A(1)
Comparison between groups in control and background variables.
Age at the study
Table 1.
M .31b
(.88 SD)
M 46.58a,b
(27.33 SD)
M 75
(14.61 SD)
50% boysb
U 81.50,
p 5 .001
t (85.937) 14.15,
p 5 .001
t(86) 3.58,
p 5 .01
F(2, 145) .34,

p 4 .05
w2 (2) 6.53,
p 5 .05
F(2, 145) 11.46
p 5 .001
F(2, 140) 23.27
p 5 .001
Comparisons
Cohens d 0.78**
Cohens d 2.98***
Cohens d 2.15***
Z2 .25***
Z2 .14**
Cramers V .21*
Z2 .01
Eect sizes(2)
590
M. Roman et al.
591
composites, representing four main dimensions of the ARs: (1) security (child seeks
help, sibling/peers help, realistic mastery, adult provides comfort and help, adult
aectionate, limit setting, secure aggression, acknowledgment of distress of child
and adult, realistic/pleasurable domestic life), (2) insecurity (child endangered,
child injured/dead, adult unaware when children distressed, adult actively
rejects, adult injured/dead, excessive compliance, throwing away), (3) avoidance
(no engagement, disengagement, initial aversion, premature foreclosure, changes
constraints, avoidance within narrative framework, denial of distress, neutralization); and (4) disorganization (catastrophic fantasy, bizarre/atypical material, bad/
good shift, child parents/controls, extreme aggression, magic omnipotence). Each
of the 32 themes (in parenthesis above) was rated across the 13 stories using a 3point scale (not present, limited or moderate presence, denitely present) and then
the total score for each of the four composites was calculated by adding the
scores obtained in its themes and dividing the total by 13, the number of stories.
For the present study, adequate internal consistency for these composites
was observed. The alpha coecients across the 13 stories were .85 for the
indicators of security, .84 for the indicators of insecurity, .82 for the indicators of
avoidance, and .89 for the indicators of disorganization (Roman, 2010).
The coders were blind to the characteristics of each child and their group
(adopted, institutionalized, or control). All 148 transcripts were coded by the rst
author and 20 were also coded by the third author, both with accreditation from the
Anna Freud Centre and the University College of London for the coding of SSAP.
The inter-rater reliability was kappa .90 for the indicators of security, kappa .85
for the indicators of insecurity, kappa .88 for the indicators of avoidance, and
kappa .86 for the indicators of disorganization.
To determine whether the level of psychological development had any relationship to the mental representations of attachment, the Battelle Development
Inventory (Newborg, Stock, Wnek, Guildubaldi, & Snivicki, 1988) was used to
explore the fundamental developmental abilities (adaptation, motor, personal-social,
communication, and cognition). Using this scale, a standardized total score was
obtained, in accordance with the standards for gender and age. The alpha coecient
was .74.
Since Spanish was a new language for the adoptees, an analysis of their
linguistic competence was necessary in order to explore any potential interference
with the use of verbal narratives. The Comprension de Estructuras Gramaticales
(CEG) (Understanding of Grammatical Structures) test, devised by Mendoza,
Carballo, Munoz, and Fresneda (2005) was used. The examiner presented a sheet
containing four drawings and read out a sentence (for example, The pencil is on
the book that is red), asking the child to point to the drawing that matched the
sentence. One of the four drawings was always the correct answer. A total score
was obtained in accordance with the standards for gender and age. The alpha
coecient was .82.
Finally, for the adopted and institutional groups, an interview with the parents
and the caregivers was performed, if necessary corroborated by an inspection of the
childs les, to obtain information about the childs history. In the interview,
questions were asked about family experience before adoption or institutionalization, age on entrance and duration of institutionalization, age at adoption, whether
the child had been adopted with a sibling or it was a single adoption, and time with
adoptive family (details shown in Table 1).
592
M. Roman et al.
Procedure
The children were seen in their homes (adoption and control group) or in the
institutions where they lived. Two trained psychologists were involved in the data
collection for each child. While one was assessing the child (SSAP, Battelle
inventory, linguistic competence) and video recording the session, the other
interviewed the parents or caretakers to obtain information about the childs
history (adopted and institutionalized). Each childs main caregiver was interviewed:
the mother in all cases of the control group and the mother in all but four cases,
where it was the father, in the adoptive families. In the institutions, the caregiver
identied by the sta as having more familiarity with each child was interviewed.
Results
The results are organized in three parts. For our rst hypothesis, before comparing
the ARs for the adopted, institutionalized and control children, preliminary analysis
will be conducted to test the homogeneity of the groups in the shared variables (age,
gender, developmental status, linguistic competence) which could interfere with the
comparison; the ARs of the groups will then be compared, controlling the relevant
variables with ANCOVA. For our second hypothesis, the associations between
dierent indicators of ARs within each group will be explored with bivariate
correlational analysis. Finally, and with respect to the third hypothesis, concerning
the inuence of adopted and institutional childrens characteristics and background
on their ARs, mean dierences, correlations, and regression analysis will be
reported.
Preliminary and comparative analyses of group dierences
The rst part of Table 1 reports means and standard deviations for age,
developmental status, and language competence by group of children, as well as
the percentages by gender, showing the group comparison and the eect sizes. The
results showed signicant dierences between the groups in terms of gender,
developmental status, and language competence. The lack of homogeneity between
the groups in these variables required their inclusion in the analysis of group
dierences in ARs. Due to the signicant eect of age found in previous studies, as
well as the wide range of ages in our sample, this study included age as a covariate in
order to control for this eect. A two-way (Group 6 Gender) ANCOVA was
performed on indicators of security, insecurity, avoidance, and disorganization
controlling for the relevant covariates (age, developmental status, and linguistic
competence).
The ANCOVA results showed that the main eects of group on security
(F(2,142) 3.86, p 5 .05, Z2 .05), insecurity (F(2,142) 12.54, p 5 .001, Z2 .16),
avoidance
(F(2,142) 21.58,
p 5 .001,
Z2 .24),
and
disorganization
2
(F(2,142) 10.53, p 5 .001, Z .14) were signicant, as well as the main eects
of age (older children showed more security, F(1,142) 11.84, p 5 .01, Z2 .08, and
less avoidance, F(1,142) 6.52, p 5 .05, Z2 .05) and developmental status (more
security with higher Battelle scores, F(1,142) 8.20, p 5 .01, Z2 .06). Gender had
signicant main eects on security and insecurity indicators (female scores were
signicantly higher in security, F(1,142) 6.68, p 5 .05, Z2 .05, and lower in
insecurity, F(1,142) 10.93, p 5 .01, Z2 .08), while linguistic competence and the
593
interaction Group x Gender showed a non-signicant eect on the indicators of

ARs.
Post-hoc group comparisons were performed with the adjusted means obtained
in the ANCOVA. As shown in Table 2, the results indicated that the adopted and
institutionalized children displayed more indicators of insecurity, avoidance, and
disorganization than the control group, with large eect sizes. The institutionalized
children also showed fewer indicators of security than the control group, with a
medium eect size. The dierences between the adopted and control children in this
indicator failed to reach signicant p levels, but the eect size of the dierence was
medium. The adopted children tended to show more indicators of security and fewer
indicators of insecurity, avoidance, and disorganization than the institutionalized
group, but the dierences did not reach signicant values, with a negligible eect size
in security and a small eect size in the other indicators.
Associations between the dierent indicators of ARs
Bivariate correlational analyses were conducted to examine the associations between
the raw scores of the four indicators of ARs within each group. In the adoptive
group, security showed a signicant negative correlation with avoidance (r 7.49),
and insecurity showed a signicant positive correlation with disorganization
(r .80). The correlation between insecurity and avoidance (r .31) fell short of
statistical signicance (p .053). In the institutionalized group, security was
negatively correlated with avoidance (r 7.33) at signicant values, and there
was also a signicant positive correlation between disorganization and both
insecurity (r .71) and avoidance (r .40). In the control group, all of the
indicators for ARs were correlated with each other, the indicators of security
negatively with the rest, and the indicators of insecurity, avoidance, and
disorganization positively with each other (Table 3).
The inuence of adopted and institutionalized childrens characteristics and background
on ARs
Bivariate correlational analyses were conducted to examine the association between
ARs and the available relevant personal and background data for the adopted and
institutionalized children. The group dierences were analyzed through mean
comparisons. Finally, the role of age at adoption and time in the adoptive family was
determined with a regression analysis.
Table 2. Post-hoc comparisons for adjusted means in ANCOVA and eect sizes in observed
means by groups.
Eect sizes (Cohens d)
Adopted
Security
Insecurity
Avoidance
Disorganization
3.25
1.26a
1.20a
1.24a
Institutionalized
a
3.20
1.67b
1.40b
1.37b
Control
a
3.94
0.74a,b
0.52a,b
0.52a,b
A-I
A-C
I-C
0.10
0.39*
0.42*
0.22*
0.55**
0.80***
1.31***
0.90***
0.67**
1.15***
1.41***
1.18***
Note: Groups with the same superscript (a, b) show means comparison signicantly dierent to .05 level.
Cohens d values:* .20, small; ** .50, medium; *** .80, large.
Security
Insecurity
Avoidance
Disorganization
Security
Insecurity
Avoidance
Disorganization
Security
Insecurity
Avoidance
Disorganization
Indicators
Security
.49**
.31
.33*
.22
.48**
.38**
.10
.31*
Avoidance
.04
Insecurity
.28*
.92**
.40**
.02
.71**
.40**
.19
.80**
.25
Disorganization
Note: A Adopted children; I Institutionalized children; C Control children.

Key:*p 5 .05; **p 5 .01.
Note: Two-tailed t-tests.
Groups
.42*
.23
.14
.03
.13
.01
.12
.06
Age at
the start
of institution
.14
.38*
.11
.27
.09
.06
.12
.05
Time in
institution
.50*
.14
.06
.16
.16
.03
.12
.10
Time in family
before
institution
.26
.05
.27
.15
Age at
adoption
.13
.09
.08
.07
Time in
adoptive
family
Table 3. Correlations between indicators of attachment representations and with adopted, institutionalized, and control childrens characteristics.
594
M. Roman et al.
595
Table 3, showing the correlations within each group, reveals that for adopted
children, while age at adoption did not correlate signicantly with ARs, other
variables related to early adversity were signicantly related. Those with a signicant
family experience prior to their adoption obtained lower scores in avoidance (but not
in the other indicators) than those who had spent all their pre-adoption life in
institutions, t(38) 72.04, p 5 .05. In the rst subgroup, the amount of time spent
with a family before institutionalization was related positively to the indicators of
security (r .50). In the same regard, an older age at entrance to an institution and a
shorter experience there were related to higher security and lower insecurity scores,
with r .42 and .38, respectively. In the institutionalized group, none of these
variables yield signicant relations with the ARs.
Compared to those whose families adopted a single child, children adopted with a
sibling presented signicantly lower scores for the indicators of insecurity,
t(38) 73.20, p 5 .01, and disorganization, t(33.848) 75.73, p 5 .001, with nonsignicant dierences in security, t(38) 71.62, ns, and avoidance, t(9.827) 70.638,
ns.
Regarding the adoptive experience, no signicant bivariate correlations were
found between the four indicators of ARs and the variables age at adoption and time
in the adoptive family. A hierarchical regression analysis in which age at adoption
was entered rst, followed by time in the adoptive family, showed that only when
time in the adoptive family was entered, a signicant model was obtained explaining
up to 17.9% of the security in mental representations. As shown in Table 4, the time
in the adoptive family increased by 11.1% the explained variance in the security of
the mental representations. No signicant prediction was obtained, however, with
the other indicators of ARs.
Discussion
If the internal working models of attachment are formed on the basis of childrens
experiences with close emotional relationships, the study of those with initial
emotional adversity who were later adopted into new families should speak of their
malleability. Since adoption entails a radical modication in childrens life
circumstances, including their experiences of attachment relationships, changes
could also be expected in the adoptees ARs reecting their internal working models
of attachment. Comparing the adoptees with other children who lacked previous
adversity (control group) and with a third group with early adversity but without the
positive transition to a new family life (institutionalized group) was expected to allow
Table 4. Summary of hierarchical regression analysis for variables predicting residual gain
scores on security in mental representations in adopted children.
Step 1
Age at adoption
Step 2
Age at adoption
Time in adoptive family
Note: DR2 .111 for Step 2 (p .031).
.022
.260
.041
.038
.487
.403
R2
.068
4.05
4.05
5.05
5.05
5.05
.179
596
M. Roman et al.
a better understanding of the healing experience of adoption. The results of the study
are also of interest regarding the associations between dierent indicators of ARs
(security, insecurity, avoidance, disorganization) and to analyze the role of childrens
characteristics and background on their ARs.
The results of this study showed that, at an average of three years following their
adoption, the mental representations of attachment of the internationally adopted
children in our sample exhibited major dierences when compared to those of the
children in the control group, without the experience of early adversity. The adopted
childrens ARs showed higher scores for insecurity, avoidance, and disorganization,
with large eect sizes. These adopted-control group dierences remained signicant
after controlling for gender, current age, developmental status, and linguistic
competence. The eect size of the adopted-control dierence in security was medium.
These results are partly consistent with our rst hypothesis and with previous results
from the longitudinal study by Hodges et al. (2005) and Steele et al. (2008), as well as
from other studies with adopted (Vorria et al., 2006), foster-care (Bovenschen et al.,
2009; Minnis et al., 2006; Nowacki et al., 2009), and adopted and foster-care children
(Euillet et al., 2008). This similarity is noteworthy given the fact that dierent studies
used dierent methodological approaches in both story stems and coding.
There are two points of interest regarding the more negative representations of
attachment among the adopted children. Firstly, in line with the data from the metaanalysis by van den Dries et al. (2009) on attachment behaviors, if the adoption had
taken place in the rst year of life (no child in the current sample was adopted before
12 months), the ARs deterioration might have been less and recovery greater, as was
the case for the early adopted children in the Hodges et al. (2005) and Kaniuk et al.
(2004) studies. Secondly, the persistence, years later, of the early adversity
repercussions does not necessarily mean that these representations are condemned
to remain unchanged. Compared to other domains, emotional recovery may take a
longer period of time, which is in line with the hypothesis suggested for the analysis
of recovery following initial adversity (Palacios, Roman, & Camacho, 2011): while
most of the improvements in growth and cognitive development appears to take
place within the rst three post-adoption years, it is possible that recovery in the
socio-emotional domain requires a more protracted period of time. A follow-up
study now underway is addressing this issue.
In agreement with Katsurada (2007), the results showed signicant dierences
between the ARs of the institutionalized and the control groups, the former having
fewer indicators of security, with medium eect size, and more indicators of
insecurity, avoidance, and disorganization than the latter, with large eect sizes.
Although our rst hypothesis expected signicant dierences in the comparison
between institutionalized and adopted groups, in favor of the latter, the p values of
this comparison were non-signicant, and the eect sizes were negligible or small.
Even so, the trend in the data was clear, with all values for the adoptees falling
between those of the other two groups. An optimistic interpretation of this would be
that whilst the adopted children could be considered as progressing towards recovery
(as attested by the increase in security with more time after adoption) , the diculties
of the institutionalized children appeared to be more static, suggesting that, although
institutionalization can solve some of these youngsters problems (protection from
family abuse or neglect, for example), the institutional context does relatively little to
help solve their emotional diculties. The ongoing follow-up of this same sample
should help to conrm or discard this optimism.
597
In fact and partly conrming our rst hypothesis, as time spent with the
adoptive family increased, indicators of security rose, which is in line with the
ndings by Hodges et al. (2005). This reects the benets of adoption and
the capacity of the ARs to be progressively up-dated after a signicant change in
close emotional relationships. However, the positive eect of time after adoption
was limited to one indicator of ARs (namely, security), but did not extend to the
other AR indicators (insecurity, avoidance, disorganization), which conrms our
second hypothesis and, in a one-time static picture, seems consistent with
longitudinal data from Hodges, Steele, Hillman, Henderson, and Kaniuk (2003,
2005) and Steele et al. (2008), who showed a discontinuous improvement in
impaired attachment representations, with more positive changes in security and
avoidance, and greater stability in insecurity and disorganization. In fact, the more
highly inter-correlated indicators in our adoption group coincided with those that
improved (security and avoidance) or remained more stable (insecurity and
disorganization) in the British research.
While some, but not all, of the ARs indicators were inter-correlated in the two
groups with early adversity (adopted and institutionalized children), the picture was
more homogeneous for the control group, with all indicators signicantly intercorrelated. This suggests that children reared in an overall more positive, stable
context tend to show more internally homogeneous ARs, while those who have
experienced past adversity show a more heterogeneous, less consistent map of
representations.
The current results showed that greater length of a pre-institutional family
experience had a positive eect on adoptees ARs (fewer indicators of avoidance and
more indicators of security). However, for the Spanish institutionalized children, the
length of their previous family experience was unrelated to their ARs indicators. The
explanation for this may lie in the dierent circumstances leading to institutionalization in the Russian Federation and Spain. It could be that in Russia separation from
ones birth family is more likely due to a lack of resources, alcohol abuse, or family
breakdown, whereas in Spain separation normally follows serious abuse and neglect,
and, very often, prolonged fruitless attempts to keep the child in the family, resulting
in an older age at separation. In these circumstances, the length of time spent with
the family may not be benecial for the children involved.
With regards to the institutionalization experience, the results for the adoptive
group showed its negative impact on ARs even several years after the adoption: an
earlier and more prolonged institutional experience relates to less security and more
insecurity indicators of ARs, conrming our expectations about the negative eect of
greater early adversity on child attachment. These relationships, however, were not
signicant in the Spanish institutionalized group. Two dierent, and perhaps
complementary, explanations may help to understand these dierences. They could
be related to the fact that the two groups were very dierent with regards to age and
length of institutional experience, since entry into Spanish centers takes place, on
average, at an older age than in Russia, or perhaps to the quality of the
institutionalization experience, with a better child/caregiver ratio and better
caregiver qualications in the Spanish institutions.
In this research, the children adopted with a sibling had lower scores in the
indicators of insecurity and disorganization than those from single adoptions,
suggesting a certain protective role from sibling adoption. A signicant relationship
with a sibling or a stronger sense of continuity could explain this dierence (McRoy,
598
M. Roman et al.
1999; Rushton et al., 2001). In fact, the indicators in which the eect of sibling
adoptions in our study was signicant were more resistant to positive change in the
study by Hodges et al. (2005). Nevertheless, the low presence of sibling adoption in
our study (22.5%) demands caution in the interpretation of these results.
Finally, our results showed that some childrens characteristics such as age,
gender, and developmental status, were signicantly related to indicators of ARs.
These ndings are in line with previous studies about the role of age (more security in
older children, as in Kaniuk et al., 2004), gender (more security in girls, as in
Pierrehumbert et al., 2009), and certain developmental components (intelligence in
Vorria et al., 2006, and reasoning skills, in Stievenart et al., 2011) on the
development of ARs.
Regarding the limitations of this study, although the total number of children in
our study was acceptable, larger groups would have allowed more statistical
analyses. Also, the institutionalized and adopted groups diered in a number of
aspects, from their reason for institutionalization, to their age at separation from
their birth family, as well as the time after separation when assessed for the purposes
of this study. Ideally, these two groups should have been similar in all aspects, but
the dierences between them are linked to dierent child protection practices and
childrens proles in the two countries involved. It should also be mentioned that,
under the labels adopted children or institutionalized children, there is a great
variety in terms of individual characteristics, previous experience, type and intensity
of abuse, quality of early ties within the birth family, and characteristics related to
the vulnerability and resilience of each child. None of these variables could be taken
into account in this study, as information was scarce.
Notwithstanding these limitations, the results of this study show the long-lasting
impact of early adversity on ARs, as well as a certain degree of heterogeneity in
them. Whereas adoption seems to provide an avenue for improvement, institutions
seem to produce a more negative and static picture. While adoptive parents should
be prepared to accompany their children on their long journey towards recovery,
every eort should be made to avoid the institutionalization of children and promote
their integration into stable, loving, and stimulating families as soon as possible.
Acknowledgement
This research study is part of a broader project named Attachment and social competence in the
transition from abandonment to protection, funded by the Spanishs Ministry of Science and
Innovation (SEJ2006-12216), and the Swedish Department of Health and Welfare.
References
Ainsworth, M.D.S., Blehar, M.C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: A
psychological study of the strange situation. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Bettmann, J.E., & Lundahl, B.W. (2007). Tell me a story: A review of narrative assessments
for preschoolers. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 24, 455475.
Bovenschen, I., Nowacki, K., Roland, I., & Spangler, G. (2009, October). Attachment
behaviour and representation in foster children: Associations with emotional and behavioural
problems. Poster session presented at the International Attachment Conference,
Barcelona, Spain.
Bowlby, J. (1958). The nature of the childs tie to his mother. International Journal of PsychoAnalysis, 39, 350373.
Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment and loss: Vol.1. Attachment. New York, NY: Basic Books.
Bowlby, J. (1973). Attachment and loss: Vol. 2. Separation. New York, NY: Basic Books.
Bowlby, J. (1980). Attachment and loss: Vol. 3. Loss. New York, NY: Basic Books.
599
Bretherton, I., Oppenheim, D., Buchsbaum, H., Emde, R.N., & the MacArthur Narrative Group.
(2003). The MacArthur Story Stem Battery. In R.N. Emde, D.P. Wolf, & D. Oppenheim
(Eds.), Revealing the inner worlds of young children: The MacArthur Story Stem Battery and
parentchild narratives (pp. 381396). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Bretherton, I., Ridgeway, D., & Cassidy, J. (1990). Assessing internal working models of the
attachment relationship: An attachment story completion task for 3-year-olds. In M.T.
Greenberg, D. Cicchetti, & E.M. Cummings (Eds.), Attachment in the preschool years (pp.
273308). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Cassidy, J., & Shaver, P.R. (Eds.). (2008). Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and
clinical applications (Ed. rev.). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Crittenden, P.M. (1990). Internal representational models of attachment relationships. Infant
Mental Health Journal, 11, 259278.
Euillet, S., Spencer, R., Troupel-Cremel, O., Fresno, A., & Zaouche-Gaudron, C. (2008). Les
representations dattachement des enfants accueillis et des enfants adoptes [Attachment
representations of adopted and foster children]. Enfance, 1, 6370.
Gogler-Tippelt, G., & Konig, L. (2007). Attachment representations in 6-year-old children from
one and two parent families in Germany. School Psychology International, 28, 313330.
Hodges, J., & Hillman, S. (2009). SSAP Tables (Unpublished manuscript). The Anna Freud
Centre, London, UK.
Hodges, J., & Steele, M. (2000). Eects of abuse on attachment representations; narrative
assessments of abused children. Journal of Child Psychotherapy, 26, 433455.
Hodges, J., Hillman, S., & Steele, M. (2004). SSAP Coding System (Unpublished manuscript).
The Anna Freud Centre, London, UK.
Hodges, J., Steele, M., Hillman, S., & Henderson, K. (2003). Mental representations and
defenses in severely maltreated children: A Story Stem Battery and Rating System for
clinical assessment and research applications. In R.N. Emde, D.P. Wolf, & D. Oppenheim
(Eds.), Revealing the inner worlds of young children. The MacArthur Story Stem Battery
and ParentChild Narratives (pp. 240267). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Hodges, J., Steele, M., Hillman, S., Henderson, K., & Kaniuk, J. (2003). Changes in
attachment representations over the rst year of adoptive placement: Narratives of
maltreated children. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 8, 351368.
Hodges, J., Steele, M., Hillman, S., Henderson, K., & Kaniuk, J. (2005). Change and
continuity in mental representations of attachment after adoption. In D.M. Brodzinsky &
J. Palacios (Eds.), Psychological issues in adoption: Research and practice (pp. 93116).
Westport, CT: Praeger.
Juer, F., Palacios, J., LeMare, L., Sonuga-Barke, E.J.S., Tiemann, W., BakermansKranenburg, M., . . . Verhulst, F.C. (2011). Development of adopted children with
histories of early adversity. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development,
76(4, Serial No. 301), 3161.
Kaniuk, J., Steele, M., & Hodges, J. (2004). Report on a longitudinal research project,
exploring the development of attachments between older, hard-to-place children and their
adopters over the rst two years of placement. Adoption & Fostering, 28, 6167.
Katsurada, E. (2007). Attachment representation of institutionalized children in Japan. School
Psychology International, 28, 331345.
Main, M., Kaplan, N., & Cassidy, J. (1985). Security in infancy, childhood, and adulthood: A
move to the level of representation. In I. Bretherton & E. Waters (Eds.), Growing points of
attachment theory and research. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child
Development, 50(12, Serial No. 209), 66104.
McRoy, R.G. (1999). Special needs adoption. Practice issues. New York, NY: Garland
Publishing.
Mendoza, E., Carballo, G., Munoz, J., & Fresneda, M.D. (2005). Test de Comprension de
Estructuras Gramaticales. Madrid: TEA Ediciones.
Miller, L., Chan, W., Comfort, K., & Tirella, L. (2005). Health of children adopted from
Guatemala: Comparison of Orphanage and Foster Care. Pediatrics, 115, e710e717.
Ministerio de Sanidad, Pol tica Social e Igualdad. (2012). Datos de adopcion internacional,
20062011 [Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality, Intercountry adoption
statistics 20062011]. Retrieved from http://www.msps.es/politicaSocial/familiasInfancia/
adopciones/estadisticas.htm
600
M. Roman et al.
Minnis, H., Millward, R., Sinclair, C., Kennedy, E., Greig, A., Towlson, K., et al. (2006). The
Computerized MacArthur Story Stem Battery - A pilot study of a novel medium for
assessing childrens representations of relationships. International Journal of Methods in
Psychiatric Research, 15, 207214.
Newborg, J., Stock, J.R., Wnek, L., Guildubaldi, J., & Svinicki, J. (1988). Battelle
developmental inventory with recalibrated technical data and norms. Chicago, IL: Riverside.
Nowacki, K., Roland, I., Bovenschen, I., & Spangler, G. (2009, October). The inuence of
foster parents state of mind on the development of attachment behaviour and representation
in foster children. Poster session presented at the International Attachment Conference,
Barcelona, Spain.
Oppenheim, D. (2006). Child, parent, and parentchild emotion narratives: Implications for
developmental psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology, 18, 771790.
Page, T. (2001). Attachment themes in the family narratives of preschool children:
A qualitative analysis. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 18, 353375.
Palacios, J., Roman, M., & Camacho, C. (2011). Growth and development in internationally
adopted children: Extent and timing of recovery after early adversity. Child: Care, Health
& Development, 37, 282288.
Pascual, J. (2000). Adopta en Rusia [Adopt in Russia]. Retrieved from http://adoptaenrusia.
net46.net/
Pierrehumbert, B., Santelices, M.P., Ibanez, M., Alberdi, M., Ongari, B., Roskam, I., et al.
(2009). Gender and attachment representations in the preschool years. Comparisons
between ve countries. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 40, 543566.
Roman, M. (2010). El apego en ninos y ninas adoptados. Modelos internos, conductas y
trastornos de apego [Attachment in adopted children. Attachment representations,
behavior and disturbances] (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Seville,
Spain.
Rushton, A., Dance, C., Quinton, D., & Mayes, D. (2001). Siblings in late permanent
placement. London: BAAF.
Steele, M., Hodges, J., Kaniuk, J., Steele, H., Hillman, S., & Asquith, K. (2008). Forecasting
outcomes in previously maltreated children; the use of the AAI in a longitudinal adoption
study. In H. Steele & M. Steele (Eds.), Clinical applications of the Adult Attachment
Interview (pp. 427451). New York, NY: Guilford.
Stievenart, M., Roskam, I., Meunier, J.C., & van de Moortele, G. (2011). The reciprocal
relation between childrens attachment representations and their cognitive ability.
International Journal of Behavioral Development, 35, 5866.
Thompson, R.A. (2008). Attachment-related mental representations: Introduction to the
special issue. Attachment & Human Development, 10, 347358.
van den Dries, L., Juer, F., van IJzendoorn, M.H., & Bakermans-Kranenburg, M.J. (2009).
Fostering security? A meta-analysis of attachment in adopted children. Children and Youth
Services Review, 31, 410421.
van den Dries, L., Juer, F., van IJzendoorn, M.H., & Bakermans-Kranenburg, M.J. (2010).
Infants physical and cognitive development after international adoption from foster care
or institutions in China. Journal of Behavioral and Developmental Pediatrics, 31, 144150.
van IJzendoorn, M.H., Palacios, J., Sonuga-Barke, E.J.S., Gunnar, M.R., Vorria, P., McCall,
R.B., . . . Juer, F. (2011). Children in institutional care: Delayed development and
resilience. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 76(4, Serial No.
301), 830.
Vorria, P., Papaligoura, Z., Saradou, J., Kopakaki, M., Dunn, J., van IJzendoorn, M.H.,
et al. (2006). The development of adopted children after institutional care: A follow-up
study. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 47, 12461253.
Zeanah, Ch. (2000). Disturbances and disorders of attachment in early childhood. In Ch.
Zeanah (Ed.), Handbook of infant mental health (2nd ed.) (pp. 358362). New York, NY:
Guilford Press.

Attachment Representations in Internationally Adopted Children

Загружено:

Сведения о документе

Оригинальное название

Авторское право

Доступные форматы

Поделиться этим документом

Поделиться или встроить документ

Параметры публикации

Этот документ был вам полезен?

Это неприемлемый материал?

Авторское право:

Доступные форматы

Attachment Representations in Internationally Adopted Children

Загружено:

Авторское право:

Доступные форматы

See

discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at:

Internal working models of

Available from: Ana Lpez

This article was downloaded by: [Fac Psicologia/Biblioteca]

Attachment & Human Development

Maite Romn , Jess Palacios , Carmen Moreno & Ana Lpez

Department of Developmental Psychology, University of Seville,

Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Seville,

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Attachment & Human Development