Mother's image of her adopted child and peculiarities of attachment relationships in adoptive family

摘要

The aim of the present study was to examine peculiarities of mother's image of adopted child and its role in emotional parent-child relationships. The sample consisted of 36 adopted children, their 32 adoptive parents and 35 nonadopted children living with their biological parents and their 35 parents and 20 children from orphanages.Parents were administered Semantic Differential by Osgood revealing the peculiarities of mother's image of ideal child and their adopted child, Unfinished Sentences by Yaparova, Patent Attitude Questionnaire by by Varga and Stolin and Family Drawing. Children were assessed with Kerns' Attachment Scale, WHOTO scales by Friedlmeier and Family Drawing.The data were subjected to qualitative and quantitative analysis. The results revealed peculiarities of biological and adoptive mothers' images of their adopted children and their attitude to the child. There was a significant association between children's security of attachment and adoptive mothers' attitude to the child, between child's peculiarities of mother's image of her adopted child and child-parent attachment relationships.The implications of the study for the practice of psychological help for adoptive families are discussed.