CANADIAN ADOPTION RESEARCH
SUMMARIES
Chisholm, Kim., Carter, Margaret.,
Ames, Elinor & Morison, Sara. (1995)
"Attachment security and indiscriminately friendly behaviour in children
adopted from Romanian orphanages."
Development
and Psychopathology, vol. 7 (1995), p. 283-294.
CONTEXT
For the
1998 follow-up study, see Chisholm, Kim. (1998) "A Three Year Follow-up
of Attachment and Indiscriminate Friendliness in Children Adopted
from Romanian Orphanages." Child Development. Vol 69, Number
4, p1092-1106.
The study,
on which this article is based, explored attachment and indiscriminately
friendly behaviour in forty-six children who had spent at least eight
months in a Romanian orphanage prior to their adoption to Canada (RO
group). The average age of these children upon adoption was nineteen
months. At the time the adoptive parents were interviewed, the average
age of the children was thirty months.
Findings
were compared with two groups, one consisting of forty-six Canadian
born nonadopted children (CB group), and the RC group which consisted
of twenty-nine children who were adopted from Romania by Canadian
families before the age of four months (RC group). The average age
of adoption for the RC group was 2.3 months. At the time the adoptive
parents were interviewed, the average age of the RC group was twenty-five
months.
The CB
and RC groups were matched in sex and age within one month to the
RO group.
Attachment
The researchers
found that RO children scored significantly lower on the security
of attachment measure than did the CB and RC group. The RC children's
security of attachment did not differ from the CB children.
The authors
found that the primary difference in attachment patterns between the
RO and CB group is the ambivalent attachment behaviour exhibited by
RO children. Ambivalent attachment behaviour is characterized by ambivalence
toward a caregiver when distressed. The adoptee combines contact seeking
with angry resistant behaviour and is not easily comforted. The researchers
provide the example of a child wanting to be put down and then fussing
or wanting to be picked right back up.
Although
RO, RC and CB parents did not differ on their parent attachment scores
i.e. levels of commitment to the parenting role, it was only in the
RO group that parent attachment was correlated significantly with
the child's attachment score. Although even low scores on the parent
attachment may be good enough for CB and RC children, the RO children
may require a higher level of parental commitment in the form of more
emotional warmth and a greater ability to read children's cues. The
researchers hypothesize that the uncommunicative behaviours and behavioural
problems exhibited by RO children may have made it more difficult
for their parents to respond to them in ways appropriate for the development
of secure attachment.
The researchers
note that the RO children's attachment security scores were unrelated
to both their age at adoption and the length of time they had been
in their adoptive families. RO children's lower scores of security
of attachment are most likely attributed to the extended period of
neglect and social deprivation they experienced while institutionalized.
Indiscriminately
Friendly Behaviour
RO children
displayed significantly more indiscriminately friendly behaviours
than did RC children. Forty-three percent of RO children were reported
to wander without distress compared to 24% of RC children, 65% of
RO children were reported to be very friendly to all new adults compared
to 45% of RC children, 42% of the RO children never act shy with new
adults compared to 14% of RC children, 61% of the RO children approached
new adults compared to 34% of RC children and 52% of the RO children
were willing to go home with a stranger compared to 28% of RC children
(Chisholm et al, 290). Only three of the forty-six RO parents mentioned
their child's indiscriminate friendliness as a behavioural concern.
The authors
highlight that in their follow up work they will ask families in all
three groups questions concerning indiscriminate friendliness in order
to determine whether this behaviour decreases with time and to obtain
information on indiscriminate friendliness in the Canadian born nonadopted
children.
Kim Chisholm
is affiliated with the Department of Psychology at Saint Francis Xavier
University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia.
Full
text available at:
University
of British Columbia*, (604) 822-6596
McGill
University, (514) 398-4732
University
of Ottawa, (613) 562-5210
Université
du Québec à Montréal, (514) 987-3000 x3173
Queen's
University, (613) 533-2526
University
of Regina, (306) 585-4290
*Available
online to registered users.
This
summary was prepared in 2003 by Inter-country Adoption Services (www.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/hrib/sdd-dds/cfc/content/interAdopt.shtml)
at the federal Department of Social Development.
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