Attachment in the abandoned children rise in residential institution in Kinshasa

This study examines the quality of attachment in a group of 42 abandoned children living in residential institutions and 42 children living in their family of origin in Kinshasa, all aged four to seven years. The objective of this paper is to determine the effect of institutional care on the quality of attachment of abandoned children. The method involves analysis of children's reports through the stories collected by the Attachment Story Completion Task (ASCT), the main instrument that enabled the collection of data. Our results show that the rate of attachment of children in the two groups are different: 47.6 % living in institutions have a disorganized attachment against only 11.9 % for the group of children living in family; 33.3 % of children living in institutions showed a secure attachment compared to 66.7 % for those living in family. Despite the gap of difference in attachment representations of the two groups, the study shows that the abandoned children in institutions in Kinshasa have achieved a security rate higher than what is revealed by similar studies in population elsewhere. This index has revealed the existence of a resilient force to be tapped in order to promote more secure attachment in abandoned children in Kinshasa. It was pointed out the importance for the institutions staff for abandoned children, to havemore attention to the history and experiences of each child, having in mind the consequences of trauma caused by abandonment. © 2012 Elsevier Masson SAS.