Attachment‐based intervention in adoptive families in infancy and children's development at age 7: Two follow‐up studies

Abstract

In the present study we examined the longitudinal effects of an early attachmentbased intervention on children's social development, personality development, and incidence of behaviour problems at age 7. The behaviourally focused intervention was carried out in families with internationally, transracially adopted children placed before 6 months of age. The intervention was implemented during the child's first year of life in mixed families (i.e. adoptive families with biological children) and in all‐adoptive families (i.e. adoptive families without biological children). In the small sample of mixed families (N = 35), we found delayed positive intervention effects at age 7 on ego‐resiliency and optimal ego‐control in girls, and on internalizing behaviour problems in both boys and girls. In all‐adoptive families (N = 112), the intervention had been effective in changing maternal sensitive responsiveness, security of attachment, and infant exploratory competence in early childhood, but enduring intervention effects could not be traced at the child's age of 7.

Attachment Interventions with Foster and Adoptive Parents: A Systematic Review

“…Similarly, three articles (Juffer et al, 1997(Juffer et al, , 2005Stams et al, 2001) were found to be follow-ups of the same sample and are therefore also considered here as one study. In total, ten studies (13 articles) were included in the review.…”

“…Two studies (Dozier et al, 2006(Dozier et al, , 2009Juffer et al, 1997, 2005/Stams et al, 2001 included infants who were not reported to be displaying any difficulties, but were considered to be at high risk for future difficulties. In the sample in Dozier et al (2006Dozier et al ( , 2009, infants were recruited at the start of initial foster care placement, while in Juffer et al, (1997, 2005)/Stam et al's (2001 sample, internationally adopted infants at six months of age were followed up over seven years.…”

“…The final study (Juffer et al, 1997, 2005/Stams et al, 2001) evaluated two interventions based on promoting parental sensitivity, which was defined as the ability to respond appropriately to infants' proximity seeking and exploratory behaviour. The first of these involved written information regarding parental sensitivity, while the second involved written information plus three sessions of direct work with parents and the use of video footage of parent-child interactions.…”

Maternal secure-base scripts and children’s attachment security in an adopted sample

“…Several studies also reveal a greater percentage of adopted children classified as disorganized in the Strange Situation Test (e.g., Dozier, Stoval, Albus, and Bates, 2001;Marcovitch et al, 1997). Studies of trans-racial and international adoptions have also raised questions and concerns about attachment formation (e.g., Chisholm, 1998; O'Connor, Rutter, & The English and Romanian Adoptees Study Team, 2000;Smyke, Dumitrescu, & Zeanah, 2002;Stams, Juffer, van IJzendoorn, & Hoksbergen, 2001;Zeneah, 2000). However, most of these studies focused on children adopted after their first year or from severely depriving environments, conditions that seem likely to increase the incidence of insecure attachment relationships.…”

The Predictive Effect of Preschool Children’s Temperament Characteristics and Parenting Styles of Mothers on Ego Resiliency Level of Children

“…Ego sağlamlığı, sosyal yetkinlik (Block ve Block, 2006), içselleştirme ve dışsallaştırma problemleri (Eisenberg vd., 1996;Hofer, Eisenberg ve Reiser, 2010) ile zihinsel ve dikkatsel fonksiyonlarla (Martel vd., 2007) ilgilidir. Bazı bireysel (Eisenberg vd., 2004;Eisenberg, Spinrad ve Morris, 2002), ailesel (Stams, Juffer, van IJzendoorn ve Hocksbergen, 2001) ve çevresel (Masten ve Coatsworth, 1998) faktörlerin ego sağlamlığı ile ilişkili olduğu görülmektedir.…”