Adopted Children's Social Competence: The Interplay Between Past and Present Influences

Abstract

Objective To explore potential postadoption moderators of the link between preadoption experiences and adoptees' social competence. Background In the context of the limited and inconsistent knowledge about adopted children's social competence, our hypotheses concern the interplay between preadoption parental neglect and adoptive parents' emotion socialization practices. Method With adopters as informants, the social competence of 97 Portuguese school‐age children was evaluated in terms of social skills and competing problem behaviors, using the Social Skills Improvement System‐Rating Scale. Children's preadoption experiences (using a sociodemographic questionnaire) and parental emotion socialization (evaluated by the Coping with Children's Negative Emotions Scale) were also assessed. Results Time since adoption and unsupportive adoptive parents' responses moderated the relationship between preadoption parental neglect and adoptees' social skills. Unsupportive adoptive parents' responses exacerbated the effects of preadoption neglect. This moderation was stronger with longer postadoption time. Conclusion Added to preadoption parental neglect, unsupportive adoptive parenting accentuates the risks for adoptees' social competence. Implications Adoptive parents should be informed that socialization practices concerning children's negative emotions are associated with adopted children's social competence.

Literature Review of Good Teachers: The Attributes and Gaps of Indonesian Teachers as a Profession

“…Children who have a deficit in their social skills will experience barriers to their emotional development. He tends to have difficulty communicating with his peers, teachers, and family (Soares et al, 2019). In addition, being unskilled in social use is shown by a negative relationship with behavioral adjustment skills (Hygen et al, 2020).…”

Mediating Role of the Child’s Temperament on the Relationship Between Mother/Father’s Adoptive Parenting and Adoptee’s Social Skills: Hybrid Dyadic Analyses

“…When infancy is marked by maltreatment, neglect and/or experience of collective/group care (institutionalization), as it is the case for most adopted children, the overall development and, particularly, the socioemotional one, are heavily damaged by the lack of an individualized, responsive, supportive, and stable/permanent care. Research has shown that early adversity experiences affect social competence, specifically the acquisition and performance of social skills (e.g., Cáceres et al, 2021;Julian & McCall, 2016;Pitula et al, 2019;Soares et al, 2019).…”

“…Recent adoption research has shown that most adoptees present adequate social functioning (e.g., DeLuca et al, 2018), significantly better than children in institutions (e.g., Barroso et al, 2018;Cáceres et al, 2021;Palacios et al, 2013) despite the heterogeneity observed within the adopted-group, with a subgroup of adoptees poorly competent, with less social skills and/or rejected or neglected by peers (Barbosa-Ducharne, 2021). Children with higher exposition to early adversity showed fewer social skills (e.g., Julian & McCall, 2016;Soares et al, 2019), especially when adopted at an older age or from Eastern Europe (e.g., Barcons et al, 2012;Caprin et al, 2017). Recent research has also shown the positive influence of postadoption parenting/family dynamics on adoptees' social skills, as well as the effect of the interplay between past adversity and postadoption experiences on adoptees' social outcomes (e.g., DePasquale et al, 2020;Leve, Griffin et al, 2019;Soares et al, 2019).…”

“…Children with higher exposition to early adversity showed fewer social skills (e.g., Julian & McCall, 2016;Soares et al, 2019), especially when adopted at an older age or from Eastern Europe (e.g., Barcons et al, 2012;Caprin et al, 2017). Recent research has also shown the positive influence of postadoption parenting/family dynamics on adoptees' social skills, as well as the effect of the interplay between past adversity and postadoption experiences on adoptees' social outcomes (e.g., DePasquale et al, 2020;Leve, Griffin et al, 2019;Soares et al, 2019).…”

The relationship of emotion regulation and negative lability with socioemotional adjustment in institutionalized and non‐institutionalized children

“…Under Portuguese legislation, residential care is one of the measures for the support and protection of children and young people at risk. Despite its negative impact on children’s development, residential care offers an ecological approach to clearly understand the effects of institutionalization on children’s developmental outcomes (Soares et al, 2019). The main legal reason for being removed from biological family and moving to residential care is negligence (71.7%), followed by other situations, such as temporary lack of family support, child disruptive behaviours, and abandonment by the biological family (12.3%), psychological maltreatment (9.6%), physical abuse (3.8%), and sexual abuse (2.6%) (Instituto da Segurança Social, 2018).…”