Assessing changes in the internal worlds of early- and late-adopted children using the Story Stem Assessment Profile (SSAP)

Assessing changes in the internal worlds of early- and late-adopted children using the Story Stem Assessment Profile (SSAP)

Saul Hillman, Jill Hodges, Miriam Steele, Antonella Cirasola, Kay Asquith, Jeanne Kaniuk · Adoption & Fostering

Story-stem narratives were compared for 63 maltreated children adopted later, 48 children adopted early and 80 community children. Late-placed children initially showed more disorganised, avoidant and negative representations and fewer secure representations. Over two years, both adopted groups showed increasing secure representations and decreasing avoidant and disorganised representations.

Limitations: The adopted groups had different pre-adoption histories and were not randomly assigned. Changes cannot be attributed solely to adoption. These are childhood findings from narrative assessments, with overlapping participants across programme papers. A coauthor was affiliated with Coram, an organisation providing adoption services. This identifies an institutional relationship, not evidence of bias or that Coram commissioned every component. Readers may consider this relationship when interpreting the findings.

Research type

Longitudinal study

Source reviewed

Abstract

Peer reviewed

Yes

Age group

Children