Relating to attachment paradigm studies, continuity/discontinuity of Internal Working Models (IWM) of children attachment -from early infancy to subsequent ages-, becomes a relevant aspect, both at a theoretical and research level. Nowadays, according to Bowlby’s hypothesis (Bowlby, 1988), researchers seem to agree on a possible and partial ‘revision’ of MOI, after the new relational experiences. From this point of view, a research field of a great interest is represented by adoption. This institution, lets children with early, disappointing and adverse experiences, have a ‘new’ familiar relationship, made of adults potentially able to be a strong ‘secure base’ and to give children a supportive and affectively available contest (Steele, Hodges, Kaniuk, Hillman, Henderson, 2003; Hodges, Steele, Hillman, Henderson, Kaniuk, 2003; Farina, Leifer, Chasnoff, 2004; Fava Vizziello & Simonelli, 2004). This pilot-study is part of a wider research plan, which employs theoretical and methodological instruments of the attachment theory. Firstly, the aim is to explore how much the actual state of the mind, secure regarding the attachment of the mothers, allows late-adopted children (from 4 to 7 years) to process insecure and/or disorganized attachment pattern, built on previous negativeexperiences, and to orient them toward more secure attachment pattern. Secondly, from a clinic point of view, this study-action -through a huge set of instruments- wants to give to adoptive family and to operators, useful information about child cognitive and associate relational development, favoring the early identification of specific problematic areas and therefore the chance to act timely. Therefore, a short longitudinal research plan has been elaborated that includes two surveys with mothers and adoptive sons; the first one, approximately two months after the adoption and the second one after six months from the first survey. In both meetings the adoptive dyads have been observed in a Procedure of Separation-Reunion Episodes (ESR, Main & Cassidy, 1988), to estimate the children attachment ‘behavior’. Moreover, children were given the following instruments: the Manchester Child Attachment Story Task (Green, Stanley, Smith, Goldwyn, 2000), a series of stories to be completed, it aims at capturing the "representation" of children attachment; the Leiter-R Scale, a non verbal test of QI measurement (Roid e Miller, 1997, 2002); the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised (PPVT-R, Dunn, Leota, Dunn, 2000), to esteem the receptive (auditory) dictionary of the child, as for the standard Italian; the Family Drawing (DdF, Corman, 1970; Tambelli & Zavattini, 1998), in order to evaluate the quality of the family representation. The instruments used with adoptive mothers were: the Adult Attachment Interview, for the appraisal of the MOI of the attachment (AAI, George, Kaplan, Main, 1985); the Current Relationship Interview (CRI, Crowell & Owens, 1996), in order to explore the model of attachment regarding the couple; the Child Behaviour Check List (CBCL, Achenbach, 1992), in order to measure the maternal appraisal of the emotional-behavioural difficulties of sons. This PhD thesis, far from being considered a full and exhaustive research on relationships of attachment between adoptive mothers and late-adopted children, suggests itself as a pilot-study that proposes a useful research model to give a first observation of the frail post-adoption phase: we hope it will be the object of deeper, necessary study in the future.

Associazione tra attaccamento in madri adottive e bambini adottati in seconda infanzia

PACE, CECILIA SERENA
2006-01-01

Abstract

Relating to attachment paradigm studies, continuity/discontinuity of Internal Working Models (IWM) of children attachment -from early infancy to subsequent ages-, becomes a relevant aspect, both at a theoretical and research level. Nowadays, according to Bowlby’s hypothesis (Bowlby, 1988), researchers seem to agree on a possible and partial ‘revision’ of MOI, after the new relational experiences. From this point of view, a research field of a great interest is represented by adoption. This institution, lets children with early, disappointing and adverse experiences, have a ‘new’ familiar relationship, made of adults potentially able to be a strong ‘secure base’ and to give children a supportive and affectively available contest (Steele, Hodges, Kaniuk, Hillman, Henderson, 2003; Hodges, Steele, Hillman, Henderson, Kaniuk, 2003; Farina, Leifer, Chasnoff, 2004; Fava Vizziello & Simonelli, 2004). This pilot-study is part of a wider research plan, which employs theoretical and methodological instruments of the attachment theory. Firstly, the aim is to explore how much the actual state of the mind, secure regarding the attachment of the mothers, allows late-adopted children (from 4 to 7 years) to process insecure and/or disorganized attachment pattern, built on previous negativeexperiences, and to orient them toward more secure attachment pattern. Secondly, from a clinic point of view, this study-action -through a huge set of instruments- wants to give to adoptive family and to operators, useful information about child cognitive and associate relational development, favoring the early identification of specific problematic areas and therefore the chance to act timely. Therefore, a short longitudinal research plan has been elaborated that includes two surveys with mothers and adoptive sons; the first one, approximately two months after the adoption and the second one after six months from the first survey. In both meetings the adoptive dyads have been observed in a Procedure of Separation-Reunion Episodes (ESR, Main & Cassidy, 1988), to estimate the children attachment ‘behavior’. Moreover, children were given the following instruments: the Manchester Child Attachment Story Task (Green, Stanley, Smith, Goldwyn, 2000), a series of stories to be completed, it aims at capturing the "representation" of children attachment; the Leiter-R Scale, a non verbal test of QI measurement (Roid e Miller, 1997, 2002); the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised (PPVT-R, Dunn, Leota, Dunn, 2000), to esteem the receptive (auditory) dictionary of the child, as for the standard Italian; the Family Drawing (DdF, Corman, 1970; Tambelli & Zavattini, 1998), in order to evaluate the quality of the family representation. The instruments used with adoptive mothers were: the Adult Attachment Interview, for the appraisal of the MOI of the attachment (AAI, George, Kaplan, Main, 1985); the Current Relationship Interview (CRI, Crowell & Owens, 1996), in order to explore the model of attachment regarding the couple; the Child Behaviour Check List (CBCL, Achenbach, 1992), in order to measure the maternal appraisal of the emotional-behavioural difficulties of sons. This PhD thesis, far from being considered a full and exhaustive research on relationships of attachment between adoptive mothers and late-adopted children, suggests itself as a pilot-study that proposes a useful research model to give a first observation of the frail post-adoption phase: we hope it will be the object of deeper, necessary study in the future.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11567/630978
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