The development of Chinese adoptees: A follow-up study

A central assumption in attachment theory is that children develop an
attachment relationship during the first year of life, based on their daily
interactions with parents or caregivers. Less is known, however, about the
prerequisites for the development of attachment relationships after the first
birthday, and about the reversibility of insecure attachment in case normal
development of attachment is compromised. In this adoption study these topics
are studied through a *natural experiment*. The children were between 11 and 16
months old when they were adopted by Dutch parents and it is this first year of
life which is considered formative for the development of a first attachment
relationship.
Furthermore, the cognitive vulnerability to develop emotional problems will be
investigated in this study. Attachment theory postulates that the quality of
parent-child interactions has an effect on the development of a cognitive
vulnerability for emotional problems. In fact, the attachment theory states
that experiences in parent-child interactions are stored in internal working
models. These internal working models represent expectations with regard to the
availability of the parent (Bowlby, 1969). However, limitations of this
internal working model concept are that it is not clear how attachment
relations are represented cognitively and that the definition of the internal
working model is rather vague. Recently it was postulated that internal working
models can be conceptualized as cognitive schemas. These schemas influence
attachment-related information processing (Waters, & Waters, 2006).
Cross-sectional research shows that these attachment-related information
processing biases are related to attachment and to psychopathology. However,
the role of this attentional breadth effect in longitudinal stability of
attachment and in the development of psychopathology remains unclear.

This research proposal aims to examine three broad research questions.
The first research question concerns the longitudinal development of attachment
of Chinese adoptees. This study provides the opportunity to shed light on the
development of attachment relationships in case normal family life during the
first year of life has been compromised.

The second research question is the following: *What are the underlying
mechanisms explaining the stability in (in)secure attachment?* We aim to
investigate whether attachment-related information processing biases (namely
attentional bias and interpretation bias) play a role in the longitudinal
stability of (in)secure attachment. Recent cross-sectional research showed that
attachment-related information processing biases (attentional bias and
interpretation bias) are related to attachment (Bosmans et al., 2009, De Winter
et al., manuscript in preparation). Consequently, we wonder whether these
information processing biases are not only cross-sectionally, but also
longitudinally related to attachment.

The third research question involves the development of behavioral and
emotional problems. We intend to study whether attachment-related information
processing biases (namely attentional bias and interpretation bias) are
important to understand the development of (a cognitive vulnerability for)
emotional problems. Recent research indicates that attentional bias and
psychopathology are cross-sectionally related to psychopathology (Bosmans,
Koster, Vandevivere, Braet, & De Raedt, 2013).

This study is the third wave of a longitudinal follow-up study and aims to shed
light on the development of Chinese adoptees who received either institutional
care or foster care before they were adopted. During the third wave the
families will be visited at home and they will visit the university.

During the home visit, the Secure Base Script Prompt Word Assessment Task
(SBST; Waters & Waters, 2006) will be conducted to assess attachment
representations. The quality of family interactions will be investigated using
the Family Interaction Task (FIT, Allen et al., 2003). Furthermore,
parent-child interaction during some tasks will be video-taped and coded with
the Emotional Availability Scales (EAS; Biringen, Robinson, & Emde, 2000) in
order to rate maternal sensitivity. The child and the parent will be asked to
make an abbreviated intelligence test. Finally, the children will have to
complete several questionnaires: Trust subscale of the People In My Life
Questionnaire (expectations about the availability of the attachment figure)
(PIML; Cook, Greenberg, & Kusche, 1995), the Children*s Response Style
Questionnaire - extended (cognitive vulnerability for emotional problems)
(CRSQ-extended; Verstraeten, Vasey, Raes, & Bijttebier, 2010), the Center for
Epidemiological Studies - Depression Scale (emotional problems) (CES-D;
Radloff, 1977), the Psychological Control Scale of the Youth Self-Report
(psychological control) (PCSYSR; Barber, 1996) and the Autonomy Support Scale
of the Perceptions of Parents Scale (autonomy support) (POPS; Grolnick, Ryan, &
Deci, 1991).

During the visit at the university, motor development will be assessed using a
balancing task and a finger tapping task (FTT; Reitan, 1969). Furthermore,
height, weight, head circumference and ear temperature will be measured. Next,
the child will have to make an unsolvable puzzle task in order to examine
support seeking behavior. Different saliva samples will be collected before and
after this unsolvable puzzle task to measure stress reactivity through cortisol
analyses. Attachment-related attentional bias and interpretation bias will be
investigated with the Attentional Breadth Task (ABT; Bosmans et al., 2009) and
an Interpretation Bias Task. Furthermore, the Stop Signal Task (Lappin &
Eriksen, 1966; Logan & Cowan, 1984; Vince, 1948) will be used to assess
cognitive control. Finally, brain activity at rest and during a task will be
registered with EEG to observe resting state frontal brain asymmetry and
mu-activity.

Between the home visit and the visit at the university the child will fill out
a state attachment diary during one week to measure daily attachment-related
appraisals regarding mother and father. Besides, the parents will be asked to
collect their child*s saliva: two saliva samples a day (passive drooling)
during two weekends (Saturday and Sunday). Furthermore, the parents will
complete some questionnaires, namely a questionnaire about the actual situation
of the parent and with questions about adoption, a stressful life events
questionnaire, a questionnaire to measure indiscriminate friendliness (IF,
Chisholm et al., 1995) and four items of the Relationship Problems
Questionnaire (disinhibited behavior) (RPQ, Minnis, Rabe-Hesketh, & Wolkind,
2002), the Parental Efficacy Questionnaire (parental efficacy) (Van IJzendoorn,
Bakermans-Kranenburg, & Juffer, 1999), the Early Adolescent Temperament
Questionnaire Revised (temperament of the child) (EATQ-R; Capaldi & Rothbart,
1992; Hartman, 2000), the Child Behavior Checklist (emotional and behavioral
problems) (CBCL; Achenbach, 1991), the parent version of the Psychological
Control Scale of the Youth Self-Report (psychological control) (PCSYSR; Barber,
1996) and the parent version of the Autonomy Support Scale of the Perceptions
of Parents Scale (autonomy support) (POPS; Grolnick, Ryan, & Deci, 1991).
Finally, the child*s teacher will be asked to provide standardized test scores
with respect to mathematics and language/reading (CITO-scores) of the child.

Parents are asked to complete several questionnaires, to do an intelligence
test and to accomplish some tasks together with their child. The burden for the
children consists of some (online) questionnaires, performing some tests,
collecting saliva and an EEG registration. Research from our departments (in
Leiden and Leuven) shows that these measurements are not too burdensome for the
participants and that they pose no risk.