Post-adoption services provide guidance to adoptive families concerning common and specific circumstances. Despite adoption is a lifelong experience, most of the post-adoption resources are oriented towards children, adolescents and their adoptive parents. However, it is also necessary to focus on the demands and interventions with adult adoptees. The aim of this article is to review adult adoptees’ demands for post-adoption resources, applicants’ characteristics and resources offered to them. A systematic search was conducted in several databases, finding forty studies that fulfilled the selection criteria (about adults, domestic/international adoptions and published between 2005 and 2018). The included studies showed mainly three needs: contact with birth family, ethnic identity and birth culture, and psychological support. Additionally, adoptees who demand post-adoption resources are a heterogeneous group. This review collects structured programmes focused on different topics: search for origins, attachment development and professionals’ training in adoption. In addition, we also found some specific post-adoption services and other tools, such as support groups or cultural events. Finally, adoptees also have access to other resources that are not specifically for them, such as mental health services. The scarce existence of evidence-based interventions is an important weakness in this work. Recommendations for future research and practice are included.
Este trabajo pretende aportar evidencia empírica al estudio de la calidad de vida relacionada con la salud (CVRS) de personas adultas adoptadas. Las personas adoptadas tienen cierto riesgo de manifestar dificultades en su ajuste psicológico y salud mental (Barroso et al., 2017;Melero y Sánchez-Sandoval, 2017). Sin embargo, lejos de poder generalizar, el grupo de jóvenes adultos adoptados es un grupo heterogéneo. Estudios recientes indican que dos terceras partes se encuentran en el rango normal respecto a la presencia de sintomatología psicopatológica, encontrándose en el rango clínico en torno a un 10% (Sánchez-Sandoval y Melero, 2019). El ajuste psicológico de las personas adoptadas se ha estudiado sobre todo cuando eran niños y adolescentes, disponiendo de menos información sobre esta dimensión una vez que son jóvenes adultos. Entre los factores que predicen la variabilidad en el ajuste psicológico de las personas adoptadas destaca una mayor adversidad previa a la adopción (Balenzano et al., 2018;Jones et al., 2018;Merrick et al., 2017). Estudios longitudinales muestran que las personas adoptadas expuestas a experiencias más adversas durante la niñez presentan problemas de ajuste psicológico cuando son adultos (van der Vegt et al., 2009), así como un menor bienestar psicológico y social (Mosley-Johnson et al., 2019). También van identificándose algunos factores protectores de su bienestar y ajuste psicológico durante la edad adulta, como haber contado con fuentes de apoyo saludables tras la adopción (Paniagua et al., 2019;.Mientras que hay cierta tendencia a tratar de identificar dificultades en el ajuste de estas personas, apenas hay estudios centrados en el estudio de la CVRS de personas adultas que fueron adoptadas cuando niños (salvo excepciones, como Oke et al., 2015). En Clínica y Salud (2021) xx(x) xx-xx Clínica y Salud h t t p s : / / j o u r n a l s. c o p m a d r i d. o rg / c l ys a
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