TY - JOUR
T1 - Attachment representations in international adolescent adoptees in Spain, over 8 to 17 years of placement
AU - Ballús, Elisabeth
AU - Casas, Mar
AU - Urrutia, Edurne
AU - Pérez-Testor, Carles
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors are so grateful to the adopted youth and their parents for the participation in our research and for sharing their experiences. The first author was granted the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Support from ‘Secretaria d’Universitats i Recerca del Departament d’Economia i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catlunya’ (URL/R12/2016).
Funding Information:
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1232-2835 Ballús Elisabeth Universitat Ramón Llull, Spain https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2144-5389 Casas Mar Universitat Ramón Llull, Spain Urrutia Edurne Universidad de Deusto, Spain https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3037-2062 Pérez-Testor Carles Universitat Ramón Llull, Spain Elisabeth Ballús, Universitat Ramón Llull, FPCEE Blanquerna C/ Cister 34, 08022 Barcelona, Spain. Email: [email protected] 10 2019 0020872819878484 © The Author(s) 2019 2019 IASSW, ICSW, IFSW Adverse early experiences of adopted children tend to entail emotional deprivation, which may have impaired their attachment relationships. Using an adaptation of a projective test specifically devised to assess attachment in teenagers, the relational histories of 70 Spanish adolescent international adoptees were explored and compared to non-adopted peers. A significant association between insecure attachment and difficulties with internal representation of parental figures (birth and adoptive) appeared in young adoptees with adverse pre-placement care and late adoption. With knowledge of internal attachment’s working models, professionals can improve their understanding of the adopted adolescent and go beyond mere classification of attachment patterns. Adolescence attachment early adversity international adoption projective methods Agència de Gestió d’Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca https://doi.org/10.13039/501100003030 URL/R12/2016 edited-state corrected-proof The authors are so grateful to the adopted youth and their parents for the participation in our research and for sharing their experiences. Declaration of conflicting interests The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Funding The first author was granted the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Support from ‘Secretaria d’Universitats i Recerca del Departament d’Economia i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catlunya’ (URL/R12/2016). ORCID iDs Elisabeth Ballús https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1232-2835 Mar Casas https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2144-5389 Carles Pérez-Testor https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3037-2062
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2019.
PY - 2019/11/1
Y1 - 2019/11/1
N2 - Adverse early experiences of adopted children tend to entail emotional deprivation, which may have impaired their attachment relationships. Using an adaptation of a projective test specifically devised to assess attachment in teenagers, the relational histories of 70 Spanish adolescent international adoptees were explored and compared to non-adopted peers. A significant association between insecure attachment and difficulties with internal representation of parental figures (birth and adoptive) appeared in young adoptees with adverse pre-placement care and late adoption. With knowledge of internal attachment’s working models, professionals can improve their understanding of the adopted adolescent and go beyond mere classification of attachment patterns.
AB - Adverse early experiences of adopted children tend to entail emotional deprivation, which may have impaired their attachment relationships. Using an adaptation of a projective test specifically devised to assess attachment in teenagers, the relational histories of 70 Spanish adolescent international adoptees were explored and compared to non-adopted peers. A significant association between insecure attachment and difficulties with internal representation of parental figures (birth and adoptive) appeared in young adoptees with adverse pre-placement care and late adoption. With knowledge of internal attachment’s working models, professionals can improve their understanding of the adopted adolescent and go beyond mere classification of attachment patterns.
KW - Adolescence
KW - attachment
KW - early adversity
KW - international adoption
KW - projective methods
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85076007676&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0020872819878484
DO - 10.1177/0020872819878484
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85076007676
SN - 0020-8728
VL - 62
SP - 1507
EP - 1521
JO - International Social Work
JF - International Social Work
IS - 6
ER -