Behavioral Indicators As Attachment Difficulties: the Case of Romanian Adopted Children

In the last few decades, children adopted fromRomania, some of whom were institutionalized, havebeen touted as examples of how deprivation can affectattachment. Attachment Theory has often beenutilized to explain difficult behaviors. However,measuring attachment has often proven to bechallenging, as most measures have been developed foryoung children. This study presents the findings of secondary dataanalysis from survey data of American adoptiveparents of Romanian children. Scores from thesubscales of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) wereused as a proxy for attachment difficulties. Twohundred and thirty-two cases were analyzed to detectchanges in behaviors over time, controlling forvariables such as institutionalization and parentdemographics. Additionally, the CBCL scores werecompared to clinical and non-clinical norms. Recommendations for research, practice and policycentered on the development of more precise measuresfor research, education for parents whointernationally adopt and advocacy for the continuityof post-adoption assistance for families.