?What role does attachment in the development of emotional, behavioral and social difficulties in institutionalized children?

During more than 40 years there has been a research interest on the bond between the institutionalized children and their caregivers. Hence, there are plenty of researches focusing on the attachment and other variables related with the institutionalization, as the possibility of presenting specific difficulties on various levels. Nevertheless there are not a many articles and researches about the relationship between both variables, attachment and difficulties. Therefore this research has as objective to study the role that the attachment has on the development of difficulties on institutionalized children. For that, 16 institutionalized children among 2 and 7 years of age were evaluated with three tools: A social-demographic questionnaire, the SDQ questionnaire, and the IMAS interview. The results showed negative correlations between the attachment security and the difficulties and also between age of arriving to the institution and the presence of severe problems, general difficulties and hyperactivity. However the variable of prosocial behavior showed a positive correlation with the age of arriving. Accordingly it was concluded that the attachment is essential to minimize the occurrence of difficulties and problems on minor institutionalized children.