Manuela Veríssimo 2
Fernanda Salvaterra 3
Resumo: O estudo da qualidade da vinculação em crianças adoptadas é de extrema relevância para a Teoria da Vinculação, uma vez que permite avaliar a qualidade da vinculação e o seu desenvolvimento em famílias, nas quais não há partilha da mesma informação genética nem da mesma história familiar. São dois os objectivos principais do presente trabalho: 1) avaliar se a idade da criança à data da adopção tem alguma influência na qualidade da vinculação estabelecida com a sua nova família e 2) verificar se existe uma relação entre o modelo interno dinâmico da mãe e o comportamento de base segura do seu filho(a) adoptado(a). Para atingir tais objectivos foram utilizados, o AQS (Waters, 1987) para a caracterização da qualidade de vinculação mãe‑criança e as Narrativas Maternas (H. Waters & Rodrigues‑Doolabh, 2001) para aceder ao modelo interno da mãe. Não foi encontrada uma relação entre a idade e a qualidade da vinculação, facto que sugere que a criança consegue estabelecer relações significativas ao longo dos primeiros anos de vida. Tal resultado questiona, por um lado, a noção de período crítico para o estabelecimento da vinculação e, por outro lado, salienta o papel fulcral de uma figura estável e sensível para a promoção e desenvolvimento de laços afectivos. Os resultados obtidos demonstram ainda que a qualidade dos scripts de base segura maternos está relacionada com os valores do critério de segurança dos seus filhos. Desta forma, os nossos resultados estão de acordo com M. Ainsworth – que sempre sublinhou ao longo dos seus trabalhos,o papel importante da sensitividade materna na construção de uma vinculação segura – e suportam um dos princípios básicos da Teoria da Vinculação, o conceito de transgeracionalidade, em que o modelo interno da mãe é tido como um factor mediador da qualidade da prestação dos cuidados e interacção que esta estabelece com o seu filho(a), e que se reflecte na qualidade de vinculação das crianças.
Palavras‑chave: vinculação, adopção, modelos dinâmicos internos
Mothers' Internal Model of attachment and Their Children's Secure Base Behaviour in an adopted sample
]]> Abstract: Studying the quality of attachment in adopted children is of great importance for the attachment theory allowing for an evaluation of the quality of attachment and its development in families that do not have the same genetic information nor do they share a familial history. The objectives of the current study are to evaluate if the child’s age at the time of adoption affects the quality of attachment established within the new family and if a relationship between the mother’s internal working model and the adopted child’s secure‑base behaviour exists. The AQS (Waters, 1987) was used to examine the characterization of the quality of the mother‑child attachment relationship and the Maternal Narratives (H. Waters & Rodrigues‑Doolabh, 2001) were used to access the mother’s internal working model. No significant correlation was found between the child’s age and the quality of attachment suggesting that the child can establish meaningful relationships at 2, 3 and 4 years of age, thus stressing the importance of the presence of maternal sensitivity in the development of affectional ties. The results show that the quality of scripts of maternal secure base is associated with the criterion of security in children. Thus, these results go hand in hand with Ainsworth´s findings which emphasize the importance of maternal sensitivity in the construction of a secure attachment, and support one of the basic principles of the attachment theory, “transgenerationality”, where the mother’s internal working model mediates the quality of childcare and interactions established with the child.Key‑words: attachment, adoption, internal working models
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1 As autoras gostariam de agradecer a todas as mães e crianças que aceitaram participar neste estudo e gostariam ainda de agradecer às psicólogas Ana Marques, Ana Rita Santarém e Alexandra Sousa, que colaboraram na recolha de dados, bem como ao Prof. Dr. António J. Santos, pelos comentários ao presente artigo.
2 Unidade de Investigação em Psicologia Cognitiva do Desenvolvimento e da Educação, ISPA. A correspondência sobre este artigo deverá ser enviada para Manuela Veríssimo, Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada, Rua Jardim do Tabaco, 34, 1100 Lisboa, ou para o seguinte endereço de correio electrónico: mveriss@ispa.pt.
]]> 3 Serviço de Adopções do Centro Distrital de Segurança Social de Lisboa. ]]>