International late-adoption: assessing parent-child relationship through free-play interaction and attachment representations.

International late-adoption: assessing parent-child relationship through free-play interaction and attachment representations. Authors: Piermattei, C., Pace, C.S., Tambelli, R. Introduction The adoptive experience is considered an opportunity to experience a new relational environment that offers the possibility to revise early insecure or disorganized attachment in abused and/or neglected children (Van Ijzendoorn & Juffer 2006; Pace et al., 2012). While attachment assessment allows to evaluate the internal representations of children and parents about their relationship, the observation of their the interaction allows to look at the specific way in which the two individuals co-construct the reality of their unique dyad (Sander 2007). Several studies have found a relation between the assessment of the interaction through dyadic emotion availability and infant attachment, although the strength of this association has been proved to be modest (Van Den Dries, Juffer et al. 2012). The aim of this study was to evaluate the relation between attachment representations and dyadic emotional availability to deepen the understanding of the relational functioning of families with late-adopted children. Method The sample was composed of 18 Italian adoptive families recruited through health services and authorized agencies for international adoptions. Children were aged between 4.5 and 8.5 years and the time spent in the adoptive family ranged from 1 to 3 years. Measures Dyadic emotional availability was assessed through the Emotional Availability Scales (EAS), adult attachment through the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) and children attachment through the Manchester Attachment Story Task (MCAST). Results and discussion The attachment distribution of the parents shows an overrepresentation of insecure categories. The distribution of child attachment is 56% Secure (with respect to at least one parent), 22% Insecure, 22% Disorganized (with respect to at least one parent). Results reveal a matching between parental attachment models and children attachment patterns and a weak association between parental emotional availability and adult attachment classifications. These outcomes indicate that insecure and disorganized attachment patterns of late-adopted children in the first 3 years after adoption may change; nonetheless, parental attachment security is not a sufficient condition. These data also suggest that free-play interactions may not necessarily lead to distress and therefore to the activation of the attachment/caregiving system, offering a possible explanation for the weak correlation between emotion availability and child attachment. Keywords: late-adoptions, attachment representations, emotional availability, parent-child interaction.