Mother-Infant Attachment in Adoptive Families

Singer, Leslie M.; Brodzinsky, David M.; Ramsay, Douglas S.; Steir, Mary; Waters, Everett

doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.1985.tb00219.x

Cited by 73 publications

(68 citation statements)

References 24 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…As well, the limited research on attachment in adopted children suggests that differences in attachment quality between adoptees and their nonadopted peers are found only when children were either adopted beyond 6-10 months of age (Yarrow & Goodwin. 1973) or had experienced an interracial adogtion (Singer, Brodzinsky. Ramsey.…”

Section: Assessing Attachment In the Present Studvmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

et al. 1995

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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.

show abstract

Section: Assessing Attachment In the Present Studvmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

et al. 1995

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Despite the elevated rates of psychological problems seen in some adoptees, research shows that in the majority of adoptive families, positive parent-child relationships prevail (Levy-Shiff, Goldshmidt, & HarEven, 1991;Plomin & DeFries, 1985). This is particularly true when children are adopted in infancy, the situation most similar to embryo donation (Hoopes, 1982;Singer, Brodzinsky, Ramsay, Steir, & Waters, 1985).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Embryo donation families: A follow-up in middle childhood.

MacCallum

Keeley

2008

Journal of Family Psychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Couples who conceive using donated embryos rear a child to whom they are genetically unrelated. It has been suggested that this may have negative consequences for parenting and child development. Findings are presented of the second phase of an exploratory study of families with a child conceived through embryo donation. Seventeen embryo donation families with a 5-9 year old child were compared with 24 adoptive families and 28 in vitro fertilisation families. The quality of the mother's parenting, and the child's social and emotional development were assessed using standardised interviews and questionnaires administered to mothers and teachers. Embryo donation children were not at increased risk of psychological problems during middle childhood and the families were generally functioning well. However, higher emotional over-involvement of embryo donation parents was found, along with more reluctance to disclose the method of family creation. These preliminary findings are discussed in terms of implications regarding the importance of genetic and gestational relationships between parents and children.2 Embryo donation families: Follow-up Since the birth of the first IVF baby nearly 30 years ago (Steptoe & Edwards, 1978), the number of couples using assisted reproductive techniques (ARTs) has steadily increased. By 2002, approximately one in every 100 babies born in the US was conceived through ARTs (American Society for Reproductive Medicine, 2008). Furthermore, in the UK in 2004 nearly 30,000 couples attempted fertility treatment, a three-fold increase on the frequency in 1991 (HFEA, 2005). One form of ART is embryo donation, where an embryo created by the gametes of one couple is donated to another couple who then rear the resulting child. Unlike straightforward IVF, embryo donation was developed more recently and is less frequently used, with an average of ~35 embryo donation children born per year in the UK over the last decade (HFEA, personal communication). Concerns have been raised about the potentially adverse psychological consequences of this new method of family formation, but very little research has investigated the experiences of embryo donation families.Conceiving a child using donated embryos results in a family structure where the child is not genetically related to either parent, paralleling that seen in adoptive families.Adoption presents children with specific psychological tasks including coping with the knowledge that they are adopted, and incorporating this awareness into a coherent sense of identity (Triseliotis, Shireman, & Hundleby, 1997). Outcomes for the psychological development of adopted children are mixed. Non-clinical studies of adopted children do not find them to be at risk of problems with temperament or development in infancy and early childhood (Carey, Lipton, & Myers, 1974;Plomin & DeFries, 1985). However, in middle to late childhood, some adoptees exhibit higher levels of psychological maladjustment than nonadoptees (Brand & Brinich, 1999). One possible explanati...

show abstract

“…The adoptive parents might have difficulty attaching to an older child, who may be traumatised, sad or angry. The adoptive parents might also interfere with a normal attachment process due to their own specific traumas, grief and inabilities to attach [28][29][30][31][32]50]. This is a difficult situation and can require professional help to resolve, and is a reason why adoptive parents are now included in the search for criteria affecting the attachment process.…”

Section: Think I Am Familymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When applied to adoption, the focus moved from solely concerning the adoptee to now including the adoptive mother and her ability for normal attachment behaviour [6,[28][29][30][31][32].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relation Problems in Internationally Adopted Juvenile Delinquents

Elmund

Melin²,

Knorring

et al. 2007

Upsala Journal of Medical Sciences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objective: Internationally adopted delinquents are overrepresented in juvenile Swedish institutions. With the purpose of investigating possible reasons for this overrepresentation, this study compared adopted delinquent adolescents and internationally adopted controls in the structure and functioning of their current relations, especially with their parents.Methods: Internationally adopted adolescents admitted to institutional care (N=20) and non-delinquent internationally adopted controls (N=21) were compared through: a questionnaire; "family relations", a subscale in I think I am; "Family climate" (from Karolinska Scale of Personality); Individual Schedule of Social Interaction; and an Attachment Test.

show abstract

Mother-Infant Attachment in Adoptive Families

Cited by 73 publications

References 24 publications

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

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

Embryo donation families: A follow-up in middle childhood.

Relation Problems in Internationally Adopted Juvenile Delinquents

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About