Adopted Toddler Attachment: Factors to Consider - Essay Sample

Introduction

Attachment between the adopted child and the parent is vital since it gives the toddler sense of feelings towards oneself and helps them to relate with others. New parents should understand attachment issues surrounding adoption to create a nurturing relationship with the adopted toddlers. This paper will discuss how factors such as lack of quality time, parenting stress, and toddler histories of neglect determine attachment between adopted toddlers and adoptive parents.

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Are parents attached to their adopted children?

The article investigates the adopted toddler- parents’ attachments and further aims to establish if lack of quality time affects these attachments. Data were collected through 60 focus groups from the adopted children: the respondents of Pakistan and China, the US, and the UK (Sub Hani et al., 2014). Every focus group had eight adopted children aged 11-18 years and a sample size of 1920 respondents. All respondents were picked randomly from foster homes with the questions designed to establish their attachments with the new parents (Sub Hani et al., 2014).

The findings suggested that secure attachments are revealed in non-working parents compared to working parents. It is quality time that determines adopted toddlers-foster parents’ attachments.

Predictors of Parenting Stress During Early Adoptive Parenthood

The empirical article aims to establish if parenting stress influences the adoptive parent-child attachment. The sample size was 112 participants and a community sample of 56 adoptive parents from Italy (Canzi et al., 2019). Parenting stress was measured by the parenting stress index, while children's emotional and behavioral difficulties were measured by the parent version of the strengths and difficulties questionnaire (Canzi et al., 2019).

The findings suggested that the stress apparent by the adoptive parents relating to their roles as parents were in the vast majority of cases. According to the findings, it is evident that parenting stress highly affects the attachment between the adopted toddlers and adoptive parents.

Factors that are only linked to adopted toddlers and their history should be given attention. However, the quality of couple relationships and aspects leading to parental stress should also be clearly examined.

Adopted Children With Reactive Attachment Disorder: Qualitative Study on Family Processes

The study aimed to establish if the children with the history of early childhood neglect have a reactive attachment disorder, which majorly affects the attachment between the adopted child and the new foster parents.

The sample included five families from the Midwest who either adopted children internationally or domestically, with the children having a history of neglect while all involved were 28 (Vasquez & Stensland, 2016). All the children involved were diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder and post-traumatic disorder. Parents found it hard to get attached to the kids due to these conditions.

Children with neglect histories during their early childhood highly develop disturbed attachment functioning, which contributes to insecure attachment with their adoptive parents.

Conclusion

According to the articles analysed in this paper, parenting stress, history of toddler neglect, and lack of quality time negatively affect the attachment of adopted toddlers to their new parents. These factors make children feel insecure and unwanted, which makes it hard for the parents to form attachments with them. The findings support the paper thesis that children who register these factors have issues that have a problem of attachment to their new parents.

References

Canzi, E., Ranieri, S., Barni, D., & Rosnati, R. (2019). Predictors of parenting stress during early adoptive parenthood. Current Psychology, 38(3), 811-820

Sub Hani, M. I., Osman, A., Abrar, F., & Hasan, S. A. (2014). Are parents attached to their adopted children? Springer Plus, 3(1), 545. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4447847/

Vasquez, M., & Stensland, M. (2016). Adopted children with Reactive Attachment Disorder: Qualitative study on family processes. Clinical Social Work Journal, 44(3), 319-332.