Spencer, Rosario <br/><br/>
The Adoptive Father Experience and Infant-Father Attachment: A Chilean Example 

 -  2009.<br/>							 
<br/><br/> 54 
<br/><br/> The goal of this study is to examine the “adoptive father experience” and its effect as a moderator variable between father’s attachment representation and child’s attachment representation bond, in a Chilean sample of adoptive families (25 father-child adoptive dyads and a control group of 20 father-child biological dyads). Quality of “adoptive father experience” was examined with an adaptation of “father life story” interview (Devault &amp; Zaouche-Gaudron, 2003), quality of preschoolers’ (boys’ and girls’) attachment representation was assessed with “the attachment story completion task” (Bretherton, Ridgeway &amp; Cassidy, 1990), and quality of father’s attachment representation was measured with the adult attachment questionnaire “CaMir” (Pierrehumbert et al., 1996). Results showed that most of the adoptive infants and their fathers had a secure attachment representation. Fathers of the adoptive group were satisfied with their “adoptive father experience”, and this was more evident for fathers of boys than fathers of girls. Finally, our findings suggest that satisfaction of “adoptive father experience” is associated with the quality of the adoptive father’s attachment representation, and that the child’s characteristics can influence satisfaction of “adoptive father experience” of some adoptive fathers.