In the Netherlands, 80 mothers and their infants, adopted from Sri Lanka, South Korea and Colombia, were observed at home at 6 and 12 months to rate the adoptive mother's sensitivity, and in the Strange Situation at 12 and 18 months to assess the infant-mother attachment relationship. All inter-racially adopted infants were placed before the age of 6 months, with a mean age of 11 weeks, in adoptive families with or without biological children. Coded with Ainsworth's classi cation scheme the results reveal 74% secure attachment relationships, a percentage comparable to that of normative studies. The results indicate no differences regarding the child's country of origin, or the (non)presence of biological children. The results contradict ndings from a study that revealed an over-representation of insecure infant-mother attachment relationships in a sample of American mothers with an interracially adopted infant. In the current study the adoptive mother's sensitivity seems comparable to the sensitivity of nonadoptive mothers, a nding that concurs with the attachment results. It is suggested that the outcomes in this study may be partly explained by the fact that these infants were placed for adoption at a rather young age, with relatively favourable circumstances prior to the placement. This may well indicate that adoption placement per se, without the cumulative effects of understimulation and lack of personal affection that older placed children often experience in institutions, does not inevitably lead to a disturbed parent-infant relationship.In the Netherlands 21,000 children have been adopted internationally since the phenomenon of inter-country adoption came into being in the 1970s. It concerns predominantly inter-racial adoptions, with children from Asia, JUFFER AND ROSENBOOMAfrica, or South America placed in white Dutch families. Children are adopted from birth until 6 years of age (an exception is made for older siblings accompanying younger children). Effects of the Adoption ExperienceThe development of adoptees has been the focus of several studies. On the basis of a meta-analysis that involved 66 studies on the psychological adjustment of adopted children and adolescents, Wierzbicki (1993) concludes that: (1) adoptees are over-represented in clinical populations; (2) adopted adolescents have more externalising problems than nonadoptees; and (3) adopted children have more academic problems than nonadopted children. Because many studies in this meta-analysis concern locally adopted children of the same race, we do not know whether these conclusions can be generalised to internationally, inter-racially adopted children. In this case, children not only have to deal with their adoption status, but also with their racially different appearance, and with the fact that they came from a country that is culturally different from the country they live in. Studies that involve international adoptees (Hoksbergen, Juffer, & Waardenburg, 1987;Verhulst, Althus, & Versluis-den Bieman, 1990; for overviews, see: Silver...