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  • Title: Attachment and emotional understanding: a study on late-adopted pre-schoolers and their parents.
    Author: Barone L, Lionetti F.
    Journal: Child Care Health Dev; 2012 Sep; 38(5):690-6. PubMed ID: 21831126.
    Abstract:
    OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to characterize the role of attachment in adoption, first by assessing the influence of adoptive parents on their late-adopted children and second by investigating the role of children's attachment on an emotional understanding task. DESIGN: On children's arrival into adoptive families, parents' attachment was evaluated. After 12-18 months, children's attachment towards mothers and fathers was assessed. Twelve months later, children participated in an emotional understanding task. METHOD: Parents' attachment was assessed using the Adult Attachment Interview. Children's attachment and emotional understanding were evaluated respectively using the Manchester Child Attachment Story Task and the Test of Emotion Comprehension. RESULTS: A correspondence of 80% (security vs. insecurity) and 60% (security vs. avoidant or ambivalent insecurity K= 0.40) between mothers' and children's pattern of attachment was found. A secure state of mind in both adoptive parents was a protective factor towards children's attachment disorganization. Finally, there was a significant association between children's security of attachment and their performance on the emotional understanding task. CONCLUSION: Adoption appears to be an intervention that assures the adoptive child an opportunity to catch up on emotional development and to partially resolve prior traumatic attachment experiences; adoptive parents play a central role in the emotional adjustment of their children.
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