Poster #94 - Inhibited and disinhibited attachment behavior in adopted children: the role of early adversity and family-related factors

• In Event: 1-169 - Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Section - Family Context & Processes

Integrative Statement

Due to early adversity and disruptions in caregiving, adopted children are at risk for developing a variety of social, psychological, and behavioral problems (e.g., Fisher, 2015), especially disorganized attachment (van den Dries et al., 2009) and attachment disturbances. Emerging evidence indicates that quality of caregiving conditions in adoptive family can present protective factors which help to buffer the negative effect of preadoptive adversity (e.g., Brodzinsky, 2005; Simmel 2007). Recent studies have been investigating mainly intercountry adoptees, and the present study is the first study investigating inhibited and disinhibited attachment behavior in both domestic and intercountry adoptions.
The sample comprises 226 adopted children between 12 and 147 months (M = 49.08, SD = 25.31) which have been adopted within the last two years. 168 of the children were adopted domestically, and 58 children were adopted internationally. Mean age at placement was 12 months with a range between 0 and 106 months. Around half of the children (49.8%) had experienced at least one previous placement (M = 0.68, SD = 0.84, range 0-4).
Children’s attachment disturbances were measured with a screening questionnaire, the Relationships Problem Questionnaire (RPQ; Minnis et al., 2007). In a subsample of n= 52 children, we also conducted a clinical interview with the main caregiver, the Disturbances of Attachment Interview (DAI, Smyke & Zenaha, 1999). Both pre-adoptive stressors (prenatal adversity, experiences of maltreatment and neglect, number of placement changes, and duration of out-of-home placement) and adoptive parents’ characteristics (e.g., parental stress regulation, parenting) were included in analyses as potential predictors of children’s attachment disturbances.
The results show that, according to the Relationship Problems Questionnaire, 12% of adopted children (domestic: 8%, intercountry: 22%) scored in the clinical range when screening for symptoms of inhibited and/or disinhibited attachment behavior. Based on the Disturbances of Attachment Interview, 3.8% (inhibited) and 18.5% (disinhibited) of adopted children had scores above the cut-off-score (Gleason et al., . Significant differences were found between domestic and intercountry adoptees for disinhibited symptoms as intercountry adoptees more often showed clinical scores (30.8%) than children adopted domestically (7.1%). No significant differences were found for inhibited symptoms. High convergence between the screening questionnaire (RPQ) and the clinical interview (DAI) was found.
Further analyses showed that both pre-placement characteristics and parental variables are significantly associated with children’s attachment disturbances. Multiple regression analyses for the Relationship Problems Questionnaire revealed that prenatal adversity, severity of maltreatment and neglect as well as adoptive parents’ stress regulation significantly predicted the RPQ sum score (see table 1). In terms of the disinhibited symptoms assessed with the DAI, both early experiences of maltreatment and neglect and adoptive parents’ stress regulation were found to predict adopted children’s symptoms (see table 2). Due to the low incidence of inhibited symptoms in the DAI, no regression analyses were conducted.
The present study confirms results of international studies as early adversity was found to predict the occurrence of inhibited and disinhibited attachment behavior. Moreover, our results show that also adoptive parents’ behavior is relevant for children’s atypical attachment behavior, especially when developing interventions addressing disordered attachment.

Authors

• Ina Bovenschen, German Youth Institute
  Presenting Author

• Fabienne Hornfeck, German Youth Institute
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sabine Heene, German Youth Institute
  Non-Presenting Author

• Janin Zimmermann, German Youth Institute
  Non-Presenting Author

• Annabel Zwönitzer, German Youth Institute
  Non-Presenting Author

• Heinz Kindler, German Youth Institute
  Non-Presenting Author