Running head: ADJUSTMENT IN MIDDLE CHILDHOOD

Adjustment in Middle Childhood: Article Review Lara Nestman University of Calgary

ADJUSTMENT IN MIDDLE CHILDHOOD Adjustment in Middle Childhood Stams, Juffer, and van IJzendoorn (2002) focus on the possible predictors of adjustment in middle childhood in their longitudinal study Maternal Sensitivity, Infant Attachment, and Temperament in Early Childhood predict Adjustment in Middle Childhood: The Case of Adopted Children and Their Biologically Unrelated Parents. Their explorative study begins with a clear description of their purpose which is to investigate and test whether maternal sensitive responsiveness and attachment security make unique contributions to a childs adjustment in the four developmental domains (p. 807); social, emotional, cognitive, and behavioural. In their opening paragraphs, Stams et al. discuss the importance of conducting their study. The authors state that previous studies have been conducted on biologically related parents and children and the associations between parental and child variables. One of the problems with these studies is the confounding of genetic similarities and parenting effects (Rowe, as cited in Stams et al.). Based on key developmental psychological concepts such as social interaction theory, personality formation, cognitive and behavioural development, this

study is important in furthering research on attachment, maternal sensitivity between biologically unrelated parents and adopted children, and child temperament. This research also allows for more conclusive information on the importance of social interactive influences on child development beyond those of genetic similarities and the contributions of temperament and gender (p.807). To situate this investigation, Stams et al. explain their guiding theoretical framework. With descriptive reference to Sroufes (1979) coherence in individual development model, these researchers suggest that the nature of the parent-child relationship during infancy and

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toddlerhood is an important factor in establishing coherence and adjustment in middle childhood. Stams et al. also apply attachment theory, based on social interaction theory, to their study, by discussing the development of insecure or secure attachments between parents and their children. In working with these two theories, these researchers seem to imply that coherence of individual development of a child occurs if parents/caregivers help children cope with the stresses and strains of new life situations through a secure attached relationship. Given this, the assumptions and perspectives of the researchers going into the investigation were better understood. The articles literature review covers and cites a significant number of primary sources with some secondary sources to provide context, relevance, and rationale to the current investigation and to its theoretical framework. In addition, the review links attachment theory to all four developmental domains. That being said, the review would benefit from a more explicit explanation of how the model of coherence of individual development and the four developmental domains interact. To conclude their literature review, the authors further consider the role of infant temperament and goodness of fit between adoptive parents and their adopted children. The purpose of this latter section needed further development. Furthermore, the adoption process described creates concern for the validity of this research. This process revealed that the adopted children were not selected to match the characteristics of their future adoptive parents, but rather placed because of where the adoptive parents were on the waiting list of their adoption agency. Overall, the literature review is most adequate in that it provides the reader with prior literature to understand the rationale for this particular study. Stams et al. embed their hypothesis within attachment theory and the coherence of individual development model. Their hypothesis states that maternal sensitive responsiveness and secure child-mother attachment relationships in early childhood (both independent

ADJUSTMENT IN MIDDLE CHILDHOOD variables), would each contribute to favourable adjustment in adopted children in middle childhood in the four developmental domains. The dependent variables cited were greater egoresiliency, optimal ego-control, higher levels of cognitive development, less externalizing and internalizing behaviours, and high levels of social development. The authors also made two

predictions; (1) that attachment disorganization and difficult temperament would be predictive of negative adjustment in middle childhood and, (2) that female adopted children would fare better than male adopted children. From what was understood, the variables reflected the theoretical concepts as intended and other possible social and biological variables were also identified. In this way, context was given adequate attention. For their study, 146 internationally adopted children from Sri Lanka, Columbia, and South Korea and their adoptive Caucasian predominately middle class parents were longitudinally studied over the course of seven years, with minimal attrition. The researchers do recognize that their sample size may be considered as rather large however making it easier to generalize their findings to other populations. Stams et al. provide a rationale for the families that were randomly recruited through Dutch adoption agencies. Restrictive criteria for the study included adopted children placed before the age of 6 months, which allowed the researchers to eliminate the possibility of too many confounding factors (e.g. prolonged deprivation). That being said, it should also be clearly stated that the adopted children were neither selected by nor matched to the characteristics of their future adoptive parents. As stated before, this could influence the validity of the findings. Next, the authors carefully explain their method, noting assessment procedures, and fully describing elements of child and parent observation, interviews with the children, their teachers and parents, and any testing that was conducted. All of the experiments for each variable were

ADJUSTMENT IN MIDDLE CHILDHOOD rationalized and well explained. From the readers perspective, all independent and dependent variables were accounted for and considered. However, because it was a longitudinal study, all variables were examined differently in terms of time. Data was collected at 12, 18, 30 months and 7 years for maternal sensitive responsiveness compared to perceived temperament at 12, 18, and 30 months. Alternatively, by examining all variables at the same times might have allowed for more generalizable findings.

The results section of the study is concise and empirical. Two sections adequately provide results for the bivariate associations between the independent and dependent variables and the multivariate longitudinal effects of the independent variables on the four developmental domains at 7 years of age. Stams et al. used four tables to demonstrate their findings and provided a description of each which helped to answer their hypotheses and predictions. The statistical analysis of the total amounts of variance for the predictor variables was useful in understanding whether or not they were indeed actual predictors of adjustment in middle childhood (Leedy & Ormrod, 2010). Additionally, in their results section, the researchers continuously refer back to their hypotheses and theoretical framework. The study concludes with a clear and detailed discussion of their findings. First, their results parallel well with already existing research and evidence that positive maternal sensitive responsiveness, infant attachment security and temperament each significantly predict a childs adjustment in middle childhood; these variables predicted better social and cognitive development and fewer externalizing and internalizing behavioural problems. As predicted, female adopted children were better adjusted than male adopted children, particularly in the areas of social development. Temperament proved to be a remarkable predictor of the childs adjustment.

ADJUSTMENT IN MIDDLE CHILDHOOD Furthermore, their findings align well with their theoretical assumptions; that the

association between early attachment security and quality of mother-child interactions on the one hand and later child adjustment on the other hand may be indicative of coherence in individual development. As they reiterate in their discussion, coherence of individual development is a function of both past and concurrent child and environmental influences and one should therefore view children as active participants in their own experience (Sroufe, 1979). In addition, Stams et al. discuss the significance of their research stating that in previous behavioural genetics research, there has been some rejection of the nurture assumptions and that the home environment has no predictable effects on childrens personality, social, and cognitive development (p. 816). However, their investigation demonstrates that parents make a difference even when genetic commonalities have been excluded (p. 816). Further, their results demonstrate the importance of the gene-environment relationship because they find that temperament and gender do influence the nature of the environment. The study faces some limitations and the researchers only acknowledge a few. The researchers predicted to find an association between disorganized attachment and externalizing behavioural problems and failed to find this. However, for the reader, perhaps the researchers did not consider that the adoptive parents likely underwent a long journey of paperwork, assessments, adoption workshops, evaluations and interviews in order to adopt a child. Thus, it might only make sense that the parents had adequate parenting skills and deep motivation for developing secure attachments with their adopted children regardless of temperament. Another limitation might be that temperament and behavioural problems were assessed with questionnaires, with only maternal ratings of the childs behaviour, thus resulting in some over inflation and /or bias. It might have been useful to have these children assessed by their paternal

ADJUSTMENT IN MIDDLE CHILDHOOD caregivers, other members in the family and teachers. As well, another noticeable limitation in

this study pertains to the non-inclusion of the adoptive father-adopted child relationship. Finally, Stams et al. mention only a few areas for future research. Much more attention to explicit direction for further study is needed in this article. Despite these limitations, the authors of this study have contributed valuable information towards the study of adopted children and child development and raises questions for further study.

ADJUSTMENT IN MIDDLE CHILDHOOD References Leedy, P. D. & Ormrod, J. E. (2010). Practical research: Planning and design (9th ed.). Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. Sroufe, L. A. (1979). The coherence of individual development: Easy care, attachment, and subsequent developmental issues. American Psychologist, 34, 834-841. Stams, G-J. J. M., Juffer, F., van IJzendoorn, M. H. (2002). Maternal sensitivity, infant attachment, and temperament in early childhood predict adjustment in middle childhood: The case of adopted children and their biologically unrelated parents. Developmental Psychology, 38, 806-821. doi:10.1037//0012-1649.38.5.806