Attachment security and indiscriminately friendly behavior in children adopted from Romanian orphanages

Abstract

Attachment security was assessed in children who had spent at least 8 months in a Romanian orphanage (RO) and two comparison groups of children: a Canadian-born, nonadopted comparison group (CB) and a comparison group adopted from Romania before the age of 4 months (RC). We also assessed differences in displays of indiscriminately friendly behavior between the two adopted groups of children. Attachment security was assessed using parent report on a questionnaire comprised of the 23 items with the highest and lowest loadings on the Waters and Deane (1985) attachment Q-sort. Indiscriminately friendly behavior was assessed using parents' responses to five questions about their children's behavior with new adults. Children's attachment security scores were also compared to parents' scores on the parent attachment subscale of the Parenting Stress Index (Abidin, 1990). RO children scored significantly lower on security of attachment than did either the RC or CB children. RC and CB children did not differ on attachment security. Based on their parents' reports, RO children displayed significantly more indiscriminately friendly behaviors than did RC children, but such behaviors were not correlated with security of attachment. Children's attachment security scores were related to their parents attachment scores only in the RO group. It is suggested that RO children's experience of extreme neglect contributed to their low attachment-security scores, and that indiscriminate friendliness may be an important behavior to consider in the study of attachment in institutionalized children.

Local Brain Functional Activity Following Early Deprivation: A Study of Postinstitutionalized Romanian Orphans

“…Interestingly, behavioral abnormalities reported in these children are qualitatively similar to some seen in socially deprived nonhuman primates (Suomi, 1997). Motor stereotypies and self-stimulatory behaviors were observed, and indiscriminately friendly behavior and insecure attachment were measured (Chisholm et al, 1995). Physical deficits could be attributed largely to malnutrition as 59% of the children were below the 5th percentile for weight at the time of adoption (Ames, 1997).…”

Separación, pérdida y nuevas vinculaciones : el apego en la adopción [Separation, loss and new bonds: Attachment in adoption]

“…Por otra parte, los efectos negativos de la institucionalización sobre el apego también han sido corroborados por diversos estudios (por ejemplo, Zeanah et al, 2005). Algunos estudios de niños y niñas adoptados procedentes de Rumanía coinciden en que los menores que han pasado más tiempo institucionalizados suelen mostrar más inseguridad en sus conductas de apego con los padres adoptivos (Chisholm et al, 1995;O'Connor et al, 2003), e incluso se ha encontrado una relación significativa entre los estilos de apego de los niños y niñas con sus cuidadores en la institución y la seguridad de las conductas de apego que posteriormente desarrollaban con sus padres adoptivos (Vorria et al, 2006). La investigación meta-analítica no ha encontrado diferencias significativas cuando se han comparado adopciones nacionales con internacionales, ni al comparar casos de adopción interracial con los que no lo son (Van den Dries et al, 2009).…”

“…Tras la adopción, la cantidad de tiempo transcurrido con la familia adoptiva no se ha encontrado directamente relacionada con la seguridad en el apego con los padres adoptivos (Chisholm et al, 1995;Van den Dries et al, 2009), aunque el estudio longitudinal de Chisholm (1998) mostró que la seguridad en las conductas de apego de los niños y niñas adoptados con más edad había mejorado tras un tiempo en la familia adoptiva. Asimismo, la organización del ambiente del hogar de la familia y el uso de materiales de aprendizaje estimulantes y apropiados a la edad se han encontrando relacionados con el apego con nuevas figuras de cuidado (Cole, 2005).…”

Attachment disorders in family and social context

“…Chisholm (1998) and colleagues (Chisholm, Carter, Ames, & Morison, 1995) reported on two groups of children adopted from Romania into Canada. The first group of 46 children was adopted after 8 or more months of institutional care.…”