ABSTRACT

Children in foster care are at risk of developing insecure and disorganized attachment, which is problematic for establishing new relationships in foster families. However, most previous studies have focused on attachment behaviors in young children rather than on attachment representations. We compared foster children’s attachment representations with those of a community group, analyzing also the contribution made by different factors to foster children’s attachment representations. We assessed the attachment representations of 109 children aged between 4 and 9 years (51 children in non-kin foster care and 58 community children) in southern Spain, using a narrative story stem measure. Case records information were collected for adversity and child protection variables. Foster children had fewer security and more avoidance indicators than their community counterparts, with those who had suffered more severe maltreatment scoring lower for security and higher for disorganization. Exposure to physical and emotional abuse and birth parents’ opposition to the foster placement predicted more disorganized attachment representations. Interventions with foster children should consider their heterogeneity in terms of attachment outcomes, and foster caregivers of abused children may need guidance in order to provide therapeutic caregiving.

摘要

寄养儿童有发展不安全和无组织依恋的风险，这对于在寄养家庭中建立新的关系是有问题的。然而，以前的大多数研究都集中在幼儿的依恋行为上，而不是依恋表征上。我们将寄养儿童的依恋表现与社区团体的表现进行了比较，分析了不同因素对寄养儿童依恋表现的贡献。我们使用叙事故事干测量评估了西班牙南部 109 名 4 至 9 岁儿童（51 名非亲属寄养儿童和 58 名社区儿童）的依恋表现。收集了逆境和儿童保护变量的案例记录信息。与社区儿童相比，寄养儿童的安全性和回避指标更少，遭受更严重虐待的儿童在安全性方面得分较低，在混乱方面得分较高。暴露于身体和情感虐待以及亲生父母对寄养安置的反对预示着更混乱的依恋表现。对寄养儿童的干预应考虑其依恋结果的异质性，受虐儿童的寄养照顾者可能需要指导以提供治疗性照顾。