Education performance for children adopted from care is worthy of serious, comprehensive and robust investigation. Whilst there is a legal duty on Local Authorities in England and Wales to collate and monitor Looked After Children's (LAC) academic achievement and attainment, adopted children's educational progress is not specifically scrutinised. This systematic review addresses a gap in knowledge regarding the academic attainment and behavioural development of school-age children who have been adopted from care. A total of 15 published articles were selected for review, based on a stringent set of inclusion criteria. With one exception, adoption was associated with lower academic attainment and elevated levels of behavioural problems across childhood, adolescence and emerging adulthood compared with non-adopted comparison groups. Collectively, the findings suggest that the school performance of adopted children should be routinely monitored. The findings also point to a need to recognise the potential challenges faced by children adopted from care by working with families, schools, practitioners and researchers to identify the means through which children can achieve the best possible outcomes.
Much is hypothesized but little is known about the effects of early adversity on school experience, academic attainment and career aspiration for children and young people adopted from care. Drawing on data from Wave 1 of the Youth (10-15 years old) Questionnaire (n=4899) from the United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Survey (UKHLS), also known as Understanding Society (US), this study explored differences between young people adopted (n=22) and a matched comparison group (n=110) on measures of educational and occupational aspirations and also psychological well-being.Adopted young people reported higher externalising and total difficulties scores (based on the SDQ, Goodman, 1997) than the general population comparison group, but equivalent internalising symptoms. Adopted children were more likely to show an intention to seek full-time work at the end of compulsory schooling. These findings align with previous research regarding the psychological well-being of adopted children, contribute new knowledge about the aspirations of young people adopted from care and highlight methodological issues when utilising large scale panel survey data for narrowly defined sub-groups.
Patients frequently attribute symptoms and distress to their workplace. Such workplaces are characterized as “stressful,” “hostile,” or “toxic.” Such phrases cannot serve as a substitute for clinical assessment of the patient's work problem. Proper assessment entails understanding the situation at the workplace and the patient's reaction to the situation. This article discusses several ways in which legal and psychiatric frameworks used to assess workplace problems can be mutually incompatible. Poor clinical and functional outcomes, such as chronic anxiety or depressive symptoms, separation from the workplace facilitated by prolonged claims of work incapacity, long-term unemployment, and patient involvement in protracted litigation, can occur in the absence of informed and proactive clinical engagement. This article identifies steps to consider when a patient presents with work complaints. Active and skillful engagement with patients who present with a workplace problem not only mitigates negative clinical and functional outcomes but also promotes the psychological, social, and economic well-being of the patient.
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Psychiatr Ann
. 2021;51(2):70–75.]
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