Early Intervention in Adoptive Families: Supporting Maternal Sensitive Responsiveness, Infant–Mother Attachment, and Infant Competence

Abstract

Results from adoption studies suggest that adoptive families may experience special impediments with respect to the developmental progress and outcome of their children. Based on attachment theory, two early intervention programs were designed to support families in the Netherlands with an internationally adopted child. The intervention aimed at promoting maternal sensitive responsiveness, secure infant-mother attachment relationships, and infant exploratory competence. Ninety families with an interracially adopted infant (71 from Sri Lanka and 19 from Korea) were assigned to either a control group or one of two intervention groups. All of the children, 44 boys and 46 girls, were placed for adoption under the age of 5 months (M = 8 weeks). The first intervention group (N = 30) received a personal book, which focused on sensitive parenting. The second intervention group (N = 30) was provided with the same book as well as with three video-feedback sessions at their home. The control group (N = 30) did not receive intervention. In the control group sensitive responsiveness and security of attachment were comparable to outcomes from normative samples. The least intensive program, the personal book, did not bring about change in mothers or infants. In contrast, intervention effects were established upon maternal sensitive responsiveness, infant competence, and infant-mother attachment in the group that received both the book and video feedback.

The Development and Adjustment of 7-year-old Children Adopted in Infancy

“…They were requested to participate in a study examining the development of adopted children. The results of the intervention study were reported elsewhere (Juffer, Hoksbergen, Riksen-Walraven, & Kohnstamm, 1997 ;Stams, Juffer, Van IJzendoorn, & Hoksbergen, in press). The intervention was not repeated during the following years.…”

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.…”

Relation Problems in Internationally Adopted Juvenile Delinquents

“…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.…”

“…The importance of age on arrival has been demonstrated [28,51,52]; whereas others have found that the most influential factor is not age on arrival, but the parents ability to invest emotionally in their child [53]. By measuring "maternal sensitivity", i.e.…”

“…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].…”