SOAD 0001: Foundation studies in Human Social Development - Infancy

ATTACHMENT AND SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS

Activity: “Baby Jessica”

The little girl in the photo is Baby Jessica, who is pictured being taken away from her adoptive parents to be reunited with her birth parents. In August 1993 in the USA, Jessica (aged 2) was taken away from the DeBoers (the parents who thought they had adopted her, although the adoption was contested from the outset and never finalised) and awarded by the court to the Schmidts (her biological parents). She was renamed Anna Jacqueline Schmidt. Jessica had 8 visits with her biological parents before being sent to live with them.

Suppose that at age 5, Jessica was found to have developed a resistant style of attachment to her mother. Hypothesize how she might have developed this attachment pattern and how this might influence her relationships as she grows up.

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SOAD 0001: Foundation studies in Human Social Development - Infancy

“You may be surprised to learn…that by age 3 Jessica…was reportedly a happy, well-adjusted preschooler (Ingrassia & Springen, 1994). According to her mother, Cara Schmidt, “Everyone guaranteed - guaranteed - that she would have short-term trauma, that she wouldn’t eat, she wouldn’t sleep, she’d cry. It didn’t happen. She progressed rapidly” (Ingrassen & Springen, 1994, p 60). Jessica remembered the day of the van ride (“I got in the van and was crying and crying,” p 66), and she remembers her first parents, the De Boers, but she did not pine for them.” (Sigelman & Rider, 2006, p 385).

What is the moral of this story?________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Source: Sigelman K & Rider E, 2006, Life-Span Human Development, 5th edition, Thomson Wadsworth, USA

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