Date of Conferral

2020

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Human Services

Advisor

Rebecca A. Stout

Abstract

Child attachment has been an area of study among scholars for several decades; however, early adolescent attachment is a specific age period that few scholars have examined, especially pertaining to child welfare where placement is a necessary but forced attachment disruption. The purpose of this nonexperimental study was to examine the likelihood of early adolescent attachment during initial placement and to explore the frequencies of this population securely attaching postplacement based on the added variables of placement setting (foster home/kinship home/group home/institution) and sibling accessibility. Attachment theory was the lens through which to analyze the 83 results received via anonymous online national survey from young adults ages 18- to 24-years-old who had previously been in foster care. The survey responses were analyzed using chi-square/crosstabulation. The results of these analyses showed that early adolescents were almost half as likely to be securely attached postplacement compared to others outside of the early adolescent age range and must have both placement in a family-like setting that has been trained in early adolescent attachment/development and have been placed with their siblings to have the highest likelihood of secure attachment. Because a large number of the children entering foster care each year are early adolescents, positive social change would occur by using the results of this study to change child welfare practices during initial placement of youth in this age group and regarding foster/kinship home training to increase the number of these youth becoming securely attached adults.

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