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Through some friends of my husbands, I know of a set of boy girl twins whose parents died when they were 5.
They have an uncle who is quite (ok very) well off who decided that as he travels so much for his job he would have to send them to a boarding school in Switzerland. They started there just before they turned six!
They are 10 now and only go home for the christmas and about half of the summer (the boarding school does a sort of sleep away camp in the summer).
When they turn 13 they will be going to one of the worlds most exclusive swiss boarding schools until they graduate.
They are very attached to each other. Its a very small school that they are in at the moment and they get the best of everything materially, bilingual education skiing (its on a freaking ski resort!) however emotionally I just wonder. The whole setup is so Dickensian and to me heartbreaking.
Will these children end up with attachment issues do you think?
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They may very well have attachment issues--as much breaking with each other as with forming new relationships. A lot depends on the people around them. They may be able to have a parent-child relationship with someone at the school that provides them the love and security of a family in spite of the unusual circumstances.
If they had a loving environment their first five years, they might just be okay. Of course damage can happen later in life, but they've learned to form attachments and relationships so they will likely not be in danger of, for example, RAD. But attachment is on a spectrum and RAD is at the far end. I'd be worried about abandonment issues, anger, etc. Or... they could love the school, enjoy their friends and grow up to appreciate the education they recieved from their uncle. Who's to say?