Disorganized Attachment Theory

Summary: The researchers believed that children’s disorganized attachment “is characterized as the absence or breakdown of an attachment strategy (Van London, Juffer & Van Ijzendoorn, 2007, p.1250), which would lead to cognitive dysfunction and externalizing actions. Thus, in order to get deeper understandings of the relationship, the researchers were targeting on the relationships between types of attachment (secure, insecure and disorganized) with oversea adoptees’ developmental functionality. Mother’s sensitivity—capabilities of recognizing children’s needs and response to the needs suffciently—was also taken into account simultaneously. To be more specific, the hypothesis was comprised by three components: adoptees’ attachment was less secured and organized compared to nonadoptees; adopted children’s mental and psychomotor abilities were developing slower compared to peers; association between attachment and mental and motor development (Van London et al.). 70 adoptive Dutch families and their internationally adopted children were in the study, and all of the adoptees were having history of being institutionalized. After recruiting participates, the researchers started their interview with adoptive mothers. The first interview was collecting information with parents’ age, educational levels and the

The third author’s blind information on families’ history could avoid the potential biases to some level. In addition, the assessment tools were all standardized, this could make sure that adopted and nonadopted children were assessed in the same way, and thus ensures the internal validity to some extent. However, the study also has some weaknesses. For example, children came from varieties of countries, with different cultural and racial backgrounds. The differences might play roles in the disorganized attachment formation