The present paper aims to discuss the implications of the adolescent's institutionalization in Portugal, giving relevance to the quality of affective relations and bonds for the internal reorganization of the emotional sphere. Attachment is understood as a continuous process, where the relationships with significant emotional figures allow reorganization of secure bases in adolescents and young adults. The institutionalization in shelter houses or orphanages generates feelings of loss and abandonment in the adolescents, and the process of integration is accompanied by mistrust and the fear of the unknown. An emphasis is put on the reconstructive character of stable affective relations developed with members of the institutions and outer contexts, promoting psychosocial adaptation and the construction of more favourable representations of self and the world along the life cycle.
institutionalization; attachment; affects; internal reorganization