The impact of the attachment in adopted foreign-born children

Abstract

The patterns of children’s emotional attachment to their mother are crucial for future development and have an essential impact on adults’ lives. Various factors differently influence the attachment representations of internationally adopted children compared to children living with their birth family. The earlier these patterns are identified, the better opportunities arise to overcome the negative impact on children’s development and helps the caregivers, placement institutions and organisations for adoption and, nevertheless, health professionals, to implement strategies and embrace a convenient approach. The PEO question reads: How is the emotional attachment represented in internationally adopted children? The PEO question`s elements consist of foreign-born children selected for population, the intervention is the adoption process, and the attachment representation is the outcome. In the search for articles, inclusion (children and adolescents, adoption, the impact of attachment, English language, available abstract, academic journals, all-time articles, and full text) and exclusion (non-full text, adults, and language) criteria were applied. The search’s outcome was to identify the representations of the attachment and the factors related. The critical appraisal utilised the CASP tools for one RCT, one Quantitative and AXIS (Downes et al., 2016) appraisal tool for the four Qualitative studies. The results revealed significant factors influencing the attachment representations of internationally adopted children, such as country of birth, gender, age at adoption, past adversities, the quality of pre-adoption care, developmental status, maternal attachment representations and the stress level. Subsequently, these may predict children’s future emotional, behavioural, and cognitive development. Children adopted from East European Countries seemed to be more prone to developing insecurity patterns than the rest of the world. Further research is recommended in the pre-adoption versus postadoption attachment representations, caregiver’s attachment representations impact on the adopted children`s attachment patterns, children’s cultural heritage baggage and its impact on the adoptive family’s parenting style. The conclusion recommends awareness campaigns in schools and public audiences, which helps identify early negative attachment patterns in adoptees and educational programs for healthcare professionals.