Late adoptions:Attachment security and emotional availability in mother-child and father-child dyads

A growing body of research suggests that a history of neglect, abuse and institutionalization can negatively affect late-adopted children's attachment representations, and that adoptive parents can play a key role in enabling adopted children to earn secure attachments. Still, only a few studies have explored the quality of caregiver-child interaction in adoptive families. The present study aimed at verifying both the concordance of attachment in adoptive dyads (mother-children and father-children) and the relationship between attachment representations and parent-child interaction. The research involved 20 adoptive families in which the child's arrival had occurred between 12 to 36 months before the assessment, and where children were aged between 4.5 and 8.5 years. Attachment was assessed through the Adult Attachment Interview for parents and through the Manchester Child Attachment Story Task for children. The emotional quality of parent-child interaction was assessed trough the Emotional Availability Scales. Our results pointed out the presence of a relation between attachment representations of late-adopted children and their adoptive mothers (75%, K = 0.50, p =.025). In addition, we found that both insecure children and mothers showed lower levels of EA than secure ones. Some explanations are presented about why, in the early post-adoption period, child attachment patterns and dyadic emotional availability seem to be arranged on different frameworks for the two parental figures

Infant colic: mechanisms and management

Infant colic is a commonly reported phenomenon of excessive crying in infancy with an enigmatic and distressing character. Despite its frequent occurrence, little agreement has been reached on the definition, pathogenesis or the optimal management strategy for infant colic. This Review aims to delineate the definitional entanglement with the Rome IV criteria, which were published in 2016, as the leading, most recent diagnostic criteria. Moreover, neurogenic, gastrointestinal, microbial and psychosocial factors that might contribute to the pathophysiology of infant colic are explored. This Review underlines that a comprehensive medical history and physical examination in the absence of alarm symptoms serve as guidance for the clinician to a positive diagnosis. It also highlights that an important aspect of the management of infant colic is parental education and reassurance. Management strategies, including behavioural, dietary, pharmacological and alternative interventions, are also discussed. Owing to a lack of large, high-quality randomized controlled trials, none of these therapies are strongly recommended. Finally, the behavioural and somatic sequelae of infant colic into childhood are summarized