The Placement of Children in Need of Out-of-Home Care: Forms of Care and Differences in Attachment Security and Behavioral Problems in the Italian Context

Rosalinda Cassibba (), Caterina Balenzano, Fabiola Silletti, Gabrielle Coppola, Alessandro Costantini, Stefania Giorgio, Alessandro Taurino, Charissa S. L. Cheah and Pasquale Musso
Additional contact information
Rosalinda Cassibba: Department of Educational Sciences, Psychology, Communication, University of Bari Aldo Moro, 70122 Bari, Italy
Caterina Balenzano: Interdepartmental Training and Research Centre for Care and Protection of Children and Families, University of Bari Aldo Moro, 70122 Bari, Italy
Fabiola Silletti: Department of Educational Sciences, Psychology, Communication, University of Bari Aldo Moro, 70122 Bari, Italy
Gabrielle Coppola: Department of Educational Sciences, Psychology, Communication, University of Bari Aldo Moro, 70122 Bari, Italy
Alessandro Costantini: Interdepartmental Training and Research Centre for Care and Protection of Children and Families, University of Bari Aldo Moro, 70122 Bari, Italy
Stefania Giorgio: Department of Educational Sciences, Psychology, Communication, University of Bari Aldo Moro, 70122 Bari, Italy
Alessandro Taurino: Department of Educational Sciences, Psychology, Communication, University of Bari Aldo Moro, 70122 Bari, Italy
Charissa S. L. Cheah: Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD 21250, USA
Pasquale Musso: Department of Educational Sciences, Psychology, Communication, University of Bari Aldo Moro, 70122 Bari, Italy

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 23, 1-19

Abstract: The current paper investigated differences in secure attachment levels and behavioral problems among four groups of children in out-of-home care in Italy: closed adoption (child and birth parents not in contact following adoption), open adoption (child and birth parents still in contact after placement), foster care (child living temporarily with relatives or unrelated foster parents) and institutional care (child in residential care for large groups of children). One hundred and thirty children aged 10–19 were included in this study. The Attachment Interview for Childhood and Adolescence and the Achenbach Youth Self-Report were employed to measure participants’ secure attachment levels and behavioral problems. Both a multivariate analysis of covariance and measured variable path analysis were performed. Age, gender and time elapsed between the request for child protection and placement on out-of-home care were used as covariates. The results showed that adolescents in closed adoption had higher secure attachment scores than those in foster care and institutional care, while adolescents in open adoption scored significantly higher on problem behaviors than those in the other out-of-home care groups. Findings were discussed in terms of limitations and implications for future research.

Keywords: adoption; foster care; institutional care; attachment; behavioral problems (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/23/7111/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/23/7111/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:23:p:7111-:d:1287520

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().