Exploring the association between adoptive parents’ attachment orientations and adoptees’ emotional and behavioral difficulties: The role of parents’ self-compassion and mindful parenting

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the association between adoptive parents’ attachment orientations and adoptees’ emotional and behavioral difficulties while examining the mediating role of adoptive parents’ self-compassion and mindful parenting in this relationship, and to explore the extent to which the above-mentioned associations differ from those observed in non-adoptive families. Using convenience sampling and a cross-sectional study design, a sample of adoptive parents (n = 400) and non-adoptive parents (n = 333) of children aged between 2 and 17 years old was collected through an online self-report survey. Serial mediation models showed that adoptive parents’ attachment-related avoidance and attachment-related anxiety were associated with adoptees’ emotional and behavioral difficulties; these relationships were found to be serially mediated by self-compassion and mindful parenting. Mediation analyses also showed that adoptive parents’ attachment-related anxiety was associated with adoptees’ emotional and behavioral difficulties through mindful parenting alone. Moderated mediation analyses suggested that the association between parents’ attachment anxiety and children’s emotional and behavioral difficulties through self-compassion and mindful parenting was significantly moderated by the type of family. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the role adoptive parents might have on adoptees’ postplacement emotional and behavioral difficulties, highlighting the importance of their levels of self-compassion and mindful parenting; they add new information for planning post-adoption therapeutic services aimed to foster a positive adoptive parent-child relationship and, thus, the wellbeing of families challenged by adoption circumstances.