Developmental Features Of Disabled Orphans With Attachment Disorder And Child Care

Attachment disorder describes the failure of establishing relationship or social engagement disorder in childhood,which is classified into two subtypes:Reactive Attachment Disorder and Disinhibited Attachment Disorder.Children with attachment disorder usually experienced at least one pattern of extremely insufficient caregiving,such associal neglect or deprivation,frequent changes of primary caregivers,orbeing raised in institutional settings.In the past 15 years,attachment disorder has become one of the most active fields in clinical practice research of attachment.Much knowledge about the symptoms,causes and development of attachment disorder has been learned from more increasingly studies.But it is still unclear about pathological mechanism which insufficient caregiving leads attachment disorder,and also about the long-term sequelae of this disorder.This study was about abnormal child psychological development,and quantitative and qualitative methods were used to collect and analyze data.The author utilized a framework which integrated research,practice and policy,and promote to generate,translate,and apply scientific knowledge in the research field of development science,child care practice and public policy related to attachment disorder.The whole study consists of three parts.Part 1 was to study behavioral characters and developmental features of childhood attachment disorder,which consists of three studies.The first study investigated behavioral problems of children with disinhibited attachment disorder who rearing in institutional settings.The results showed that the detection rate of behavior problems reached up to 74%among children with attachment disorder,and the rate of girls(78.5%)was higher than that of boys(60%).Attachment disorder’s symptoms were associated with more internalizing and externalizing problems,and mixed with various co-morbidities.In the second study,structured interview was adopted to study social adaptation of children with attachment disorder in social welfare institutions.The results showed that most children with attachment disorder preformed social maladaptation.Three factors including education,positive emotion state and good peer relationship could positively predict social adaptation of children with attachment disorder.The third study selected a foster child with typical Disinhibited Attachment Disorder as a case study.The results suggested that the essential cause of the first foster care breakdown probably was failure to establish alternative trust parent-child relationship between foster parent and foster child.The study found that three protective factors were related to mental health of foster child which included frequent interaction between caregiver and child,family function in working order,and psychological preparation.Part 2 was to explore pathology and development model of childhood attachment which consists of two studies.The fourth study was to explore the relationship between lack of interaction and attachment disorder.The results suggested that self-stimulatory behaviors were associated with attachment disorder both among foster children and institutional children.The incidence rate of self-stimulatory behavior among foster children is significantly less than that of institutional children.The lack or insufficiency of interaction is essentially unresponsive care originated from the neglect of caregivers,which caused self-stimulatory behaviors and attachment disorder."Serve-return interaction" between caregiver and child can explain the core pathological mechanism of attachment disorder.Foster care enhanced caregiver-child interaction which reduced the incidence rate of self-stimulatory behaviors and attachment disorder.In the fifth study,the author reflected the limitation of attachment theory in explaining attachment disorder,and suggested to inspect and explain the pathological mechanism and development of attachment disorder in more complex and broader social settings.Base on integrating empirical evidences and literature,the author proposed the Ecological Model of Developmental Interactive Relationship(EMDIR)to explain the development of childhood attachment disorder.The model supposes that the insufficiency or lack of developmental interactive relationship perhaps leads to attachment disorder.Interaction,engagement and inclusion are the basis of relationship development,and relationship is in the core body of child development,and the quality of relationship determines childhood social development.Childhood social development and even mental health development are based on developmental interactive relationship,and the EMDIR also can be used as a general development model.The lack or low quality of caregiver-child interaction in microsystem is the pathological mechanism of attachment disorder;social engagement disorder or difficulty in establishing relationship in mesosystem is the essential symptom of the disorder;failure of social inclusion in macrosystem means that the child with attachment disorder is being social excluded,which leads to long-term negative consequence of social adaption;work environment of caregivers in institutions(e.g.caregiver-child ratio)influences the exosystem of disabled orphans;the development course of attachment in choronosystem presents from the lack or low quality of interaction in microsystem to engagement disorder in mesosystem then to failure of relationship in macrosystem.Part 3 focused on the application of research findings in practice and policy of child care,which consisted of three studies.In the sixth study,the author proposed Social Engagement Model of Practice and Policy in Child Care based on the Ecological Model of Developmental Interactive Relationship and interaction analysis according to ecological system.The model may be applied to practice guidance and public policy making.In the seventh study,multiple attachment relationships was taken as the theoretic basis of alternative caregiving,and the function of foster families for disabled orphans was assessed.The results indicated that foster care had brought positive family function,and foster care should be an effective alternative caregiving which can help establish intimate relationship between foster parents and foster children.Time of duration and education can reinforce the affect bonding and adaptive capacity.The Balanced Triangle Model of Parent-Child Relationship in foster family which supposed by the author will be applied to assess the function of foster families and judge whether foster care placement of disabled orphan is successful.The eighth study was to explore how we could apply the research findings of attachment disorder into practice and policy-making of child care.The literature review showed that psychological researches were becoming increasingly connected with public policy making,and the application researchesof child development covered a lot of fields related to child care and mental health.Attachment theory and the research about attachment disorder have a profound effect on child care practice and policy.The author took foster care of disabled orphan as an instance,initially explore the strategies to apply research findings to policy-making in foster care.