Children With Attachment Disorders From Orphanages, Essay Example

Abstract

This paper explores the hypothesized effects of temporary homes and orphanages on infants and the likely accompanying attachment disorders.  It draws on the collaborative work of Neil W. Boris and Charles H. Zeanah, “Practice parameter for the assessment and treatment of children and adolescents with reactive attachment disorder of infancy and early childhood” along with work from Daniel S. Schechter and Erica Willheim, “Disturbances of attachment and parental psychopathology in early childhood. Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Issue. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Clinics of North America,” and Neil K. Kaneshiro’s “Reactive attachment disorder of infancy or early childhood.”

Introduction

Since attachment disorder is caused by an individual being unable to form a normal attachment to a primary caregiver in early childhood, infants in temporary homes are at risk due to them not having enough time to form the necessary attachments due to the frequent change of caregivers.   Although the behavioral issues of individuals with attachment disorder cannot be precisely predicted, and may include any type of difficulty in forming normal social attachments in all stages of development, there is some correlation between the cause and which of the associated behaviors is exhibited.

In an infant who is shuffled from one caregiver to another, it is probable that they would always be trying to form attachments, and would eventually develop the behavior of forming attachments to every adult they meet, regardless of whether it is inappropriate or not (this being the disinhibited form of the disorder).  Conversely, due to the unpredictable nature of the disorder, the child could instead give up on forming attachments altogether and become extremely withdrawn (the inhibited form).  The most definite statement that could be made in this case, though, is that the child would perceive all adults the same way, and it could likely result in the child failing to differentiate between his or her temporary caregivers and complete strangers, but the exact resulting behavior would vary on a case by case basis.  All attachment disorders are diagnosed by the presence of the specific traumas that cause them rather than behavioral cues, but when the obstacle to forming proper attachments is the frequent changing of caregivers, the behavior more likely to exhibit characteristics of the reactive type of attachment disorders.

References

Neil W. Boris and Charles H. Zeanah. (2005). Practice parameter for the assessment and treatment of children and adolescents with reactive attachment disorder of infancy and early childhood. American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychology.

Schechter DS, Willheim E. (2009). Disturbances of attachment and parental psychopathology in early childhood. Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Issue. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Clinics of North America, 18(3), 665-687.

Neil K. Kaneshiro. (2008). Reactive attachment disorder of infancy or early childhood.  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus.