This study examined attachment patterns, parenting styles, and adaptive/social skills in 58 internationally adopted children in Spain aged 7-8 from Russia, Ethiopia, and China. The results showed that attachment patterns differed based on country of origin. Secure attachment was related to stronger adaptive/social skills, while emotional warmth parenting style also positively correlated with adaptive skills. The authors hypothesize that pre-adoption conditions and cultural differences may impact attachment classifications and skills development.

1. RESILIENCE:
ADAPTIVE AND SOCIAL SKILLS IN
INTERNATIONALLY ADOPTED
CHILDREN IN SPAIN
Natalia Barcons Castel 1
natalia.barcons@campus.uab.cat
Carme Brun 1
Albert Fornieles 1
Diana Marre 1
Neus Abrines 1
Victòria Fumadó 2
1
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
2
Hospital Sant Joan de Déu
2010 Meeting SCCR/SASci/AAACIG
Albuquerque, New México.

2. Research framework
o MEC R+D SEJ 2006-2009 15286
“International adoption: social and familial inclusion
of the internationally adopted children.
Interdisciplinary and comparative perspectives”
o Period 2010-2012 : Science and Innovation Ministry
CSO2009-14763-C03-01 “National and international
adoption: family, education and pertinence:
interdisciplinary and comparative perspectives”

3. Introduction
o Research in resilience has been trying to identify the protective
factors that may contribute to positive outcomes, but research in
this construct is moving into the understanding of the underlying
processes and how these factors contribute to a positive
adaptation despite exposure to adversity.
 Rutter (1985) took this term from physics, denoting the skills of a
body of resisting, be strong and not to distort; and adapted to the
human being, characterizes those people that, in spite of being
born and living in high risks situations, develop psychologically
healthy.
 Resilience refers to the individuals' skills to superimpose to
tragedies or periods of emotional problems, and to go out
strengthened of these difficulties.

4.  In western countries the quality of the attachment relationships
with parents or care keepers is considered as one of the factors
that contribute to the proper development of the child.
 The attachment has consequences so much to short as long-term
in the child’s development, in the neurobiological functioning,
cognitive, in the emotional well-being and in the social relations.
 During the first life year, most of the children develop an internal
organization to handle external stressors.
 Early maternal separation and psychological privation are
distinctive on much of adoptions.
 All the adopted children have lived at least a first separation and,
therefore, insecurities and difficulties can arise and be shown
through his behavior.

5. o According to Ainsworth classification, the difference in the type of
strategy used to regulate stress and insecurity, is what
differentiates four attachment patterns (Bartholomew and
Horowitz, 1991).
o Secure/autonomous attachment pattern:
Given in 65% of the babies.
o Insecure preoccupied attachment pattern:
Is given in 10% of the babies.
o Insecure avoidant:
Is given in 20% of the babies.
o Disorganized/disoriented attachment pattern:
Is given between about 5 and 10% of the babies.
 An insecure attachment is considered as a risk factor for
psychopathology development.

6. Pre-adoptive circumstances:
Institutionalization
Medical care
Age at adoption
Attachment relations
Resilience
Post adoptive situation: Individual characteristics:
Attachment relations Temperament
Parenting styles Cognitive capacities

7. OBJECTIVE
The goal of this research is to explore in a sample of 58 internationally
adopted minors in Spain aged 7 and 8 years old, from Russia,
Ethiopia and China:
o the attachment pattern and the parenting style of the adoptive
family; and their relation with the children adaptive and social
abilities.
Hypothesis:
Attachment patterns will differ according to the country of origin of
the adopted children.
Attachment patterns and parenting styles will be related to the
adaptive and social abilities from internationally adopted
children.

8. Method: 1. Participants
 Paediatric Service of the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital, Barcelona.
 Age: 7 and 8.
 Exclusion criteria: Less than 2 years period living with the adoptive
family
Country of origin
Ethiopia Russia China Total
Female 5 12 23 40
Male 6 12 0 18
Total 11 24 23 58

9. Method: 2. Instruments
o Family characteristics ad hoc questionnaire
o Friends and Family Interview (FFI; Steele, H., y Steele, M.,
2006). Interviews have been video recorded, transcribed and
codified according to the training received by Prof. Steele.
o Behavioral Assessment System for Children (BASC;
Reynolds y Kamphaus, 1992). Parents questionnaire (adaptive
and social skills scales).
o Egna Minnen Beträffande Uppfostran (EMBU; Perris,
Jacobsson, Lindström, Von Knorring, and Perris, 1980):
Parenting styles.

10. Method: 3. Procedure
o Contact Pediatric Service Hospital Sant Joan de Déu and
Hospital appointments
o Family information and parents written consent
o Children assessment:
o During the Friends and Family Interview, the children is asked
not only about the relationship with his/her mother but also
about the relation with father, siblings, rest of the family,
friends, teachers; school competence and social activities.
o Correction of the applied instruments
o Report to the family with the results
o Database, Data Analysis and Preparation of the results.

11. Preliminary results:
Which factors relate with the development
of adaptive and social skills?
o On the children's' available data:
o No differences appear in adaptive skills, leadership, and
social skills depending on the country of origin, age at
adoption or depending on the sex of the minor.

12. Results:
Attachment pattern and country of origin
 63.6% of children from international adoption of this research have a
secure attachment pattern.
 Attachment pattern differs depending on the country of origin. (p=0.012)
 Inter-rater agreement: 90%
Secure - Insecure- Insecure- Disorganized
autonom dismissing Preoccupied
ous ‫‏‬
Ethiopia 6 (60%) 4 (40%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%)
Russia 10 8 (34.8%) 5 (21.7%) 0 (0%)
(43.5%)
China 19 3 (13.%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%)
(86.46%)

13. Results:
Attachment and adaptive skills
oT tests for two groups show significant difference of means
for the global scale of adaptive skills and for the three
variables that compose the scale: adaptability, social and
leadership skills, according to the attachment pattern of the
children.
T tes ts
95% IC
Sig. Mean
(bilateral) dif f erence
Adaptability ,082 -5,322 -11,351 ,708
Social s kills ,003 -7,692 -12,742 -2,64
Leadership ,003 -8,360 -13,680 -3,04
Adaptive skills ,003 -8,583 -14,182 -2,98

14. Results:
Parenting styles and adaptive skills
oCorrelations between parenting styles and adaptive skills show us
the significant influence of the emotional warmth parenting style on all
the adaptive skills.
Correlations
Emotional
warmth Overprotection Favouritism Rejection
Adaptive Pearson’s r
,492(**) -0.200 -0.079 -0.145
skills -
Composite p 0.000 0.140 0.626 0.286
scale
Adaptability Pearson’s r
,404(**) -0.206 0.052 -0.028
p 0.002 0.127 0.751 0.840
Social skills Pearson’s r
,358(**) -0.232 -0.069 -0.167
p 0.007 0.086 0.672 0.220
Leadership Pearson’s r
,521(**) -0.095 -0.193 -0.183
p 0.000 0.488 0.232 0.177

15. Conclusions
 No differences appear in adaptive skills, leadership, and social
skills depending on the country of origin, age at adoption or
depending on the sex of the minor.
 The attachment pattern of the internationally adopted children and
according to the Ainsworth classification seems to differ according
to the country of origin.
 Secure-autonomous attachment pattern seems directly related in
the development of adaptive and social skills.
 The emotional warmth parenting style seems related in the
adaptive and social skills of the children.

16. Discussion
 The attachment pattern differs according to the country of origin.
 One hypothesis would be that the attachment classification
doesn’t work depending of the country of origin, an adaptive
behaviour in another country doesn’t have to be considered
adaptive in the Spanish context.
 Pre adoptive conditions of life may differ as well depending on
the country and institutionalization period and characteristics.
 The emotional warmth parenting style and the secure attachment
pattern seem directly related. It would be convenient to study the
dynamic that these two factors follow and in which way they
interact to strengthen children skills.

17. RESILIENCE:
ADAPTIVE AND SOCIAL SKILLS IN
INTERNATIONALLY ADOPTED
CHILDREN IN SPAIN
Natalia Barcons Castel 1
natalia.barcons@campus.uab.cat
Carme Brun 1
Albert Fornieles 1
Diana Marre 1
Neus Abrines 1
Victòria Fumadó 2
1
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
2
Hospital Sant Joan de Déu
2010 Meeting SCCR/SASci/AAACIG
Albuquerque, New México.