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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Psychiatry

Sec. Psychopathology

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1453950

This article is part of the Research Topic Neurobiological, Psychological, and Environmental Influences on Parenting and Child Development: An Inclusive and Interdisciplinary Perspective View all 11 articles

Dissociative Symptoms in School-Aged Adopted Children Who Experienced Maternal Separation and Disruptive Caregiving in Infancy

Provisionally accepted
Petra Winnette Petra Winnette Petr Bob Petr Bob *
  • Charles University, Prague, Czechia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    AbstractAmounting findings on maternal separation and early disturbed caregiving suggest that this type of early experience negatively influences socio-emotional development and may be associated with behavioral and mental health problems in later life. Concerning previously published studies, we have assessed if maternal separation and disrupted caregiving before adoption in infancy could be related to heightened levels of dissociative symptoms and behavioral problems in middle childhood. We involved 30 children (sample S1) who had experienced maternal separation after birth and short-term institutional or foster care prior to adoption before 16.7 months of age. Based on the parents’ reports, they had not experienced any other significant adversities by the time of evaluation. These children were compared to a control group of children who have lived with their biological mothers in complete families (sample S2; N=25). Although the findings are correlational and not causal, they indicate that specific adverse experiences, maternal separation after birth, and relatively short disruptive caregiving prior to successful adoption in infancy could be associated with significantly heightened levels of dissociative symptoms and behavioral problems in school-aged children. Our data also contribute to the literature on child socio-emotional development and the etiology of dissociative disorders.

    Keywords: maternal separation, disruptive caregiving, stress, dissociation, Behavioral problems

    Received: 24 Jun 2024; Accepted: 31 Mar 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Winnette and Bob. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Petr Bob, Charles University, Prague, Czechia

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