research in practice

The research addresses the question of whether adopted children are more or less securely attached than children either raised by their biological parents or children in foster care. Two series of meta-analyses were conducted, one using only observational assessments of attachment and one using both observational and self-report assessments. The observational assessments showed that children adopted before 12 months of age were as securely attached as their non-adopted peers. Those adopted after their first birthday showed less attachment security than non-adopted children. Foster children showed comparable levels of attachment security to adopted children.

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