Attachment and the Adoptive Family: Identifying Common Issues and Methods for Improvement

The process of adoption in the U.S. is incredibly hard to navigate as an adoptive parent. Each primary type of adoption (international, foster, private domestic) comes with its own challenges and costs. One of the hardest challenges for both adopted children and adoptive families forming a secure and satisfactory attachment. Examining what goes into a child’s ability to attach to caregiver will help the analysis of the attachment issues that all adoptive families undergo. The adoptive parent must also start to form an attachment to their child as well as help the child transition into their new placement. Adoptive parents however, often find themselves questioning the legitimacy of their parenthood with their new child. This is further hindered if the child has problems forming secure attachments to others. A greater breadth of resources are needed to counteract these common issues so that adoptive families can get more specific help for their unique situations. As adoption becomes more socially acceptable and prevalent, stronger pushes towards data collection and research will help future adoptive families to form secure attachments more quickly and easily