Adversity and Adjustment in Children in Institutions, Family Foster Care, and Adoption

Abstract

This study's objective was to identify the adversity profiles of children in different childcare placements, and to analyze their relationship with subsequent psychological adjustment. We studied a group of 230 children 4 to 10 years old indifferent childcare placements (international adoption, institutional care, non-kin foster care, and kinship care), as well as a control group. Information was collected from parent or caregiver interviews and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). The results showed that children in the child welfare system had experienced significant adversity before their current placement, especially among institutional care cases and international adoptees. Meanwhile, children in kinship care had experienced less adversity (p .50 to d > .80). After a period of time in their respective placements, children's psychological adjustment was generally positive, but children living in institutional care exhibited the most problems and difficulties, followed by non-kin foster care cases (p .50 to d > .80). Finally, we found that children's early adversity levels (p < .05; r = .16), age of current placement (p < .01; r = .23), and duration of current placement (p < .05: r = -.19) were all tied to current psychological adjustment.

Adoption.

“…In studies in both the United States (Howard, Smith, & Ryan, 2004) and elsewhere (e.g., Spain;Jiménez-Morago, León, & Román, 2015), children who experience institutionalization or nonkin foster care settings prior to adoption tend to show more difficulties postadoption, as compared with other adopted children without these prior arrangements. In the United States, Simmel, Barth, and Brooks (2007) revealed that adolescents adopted from foster care had more behavior problems than did other adopted adolescents; both groups, however, exhibited more problems than nonadopted children.…”

Child‐parent cardiac transference is decreased following disrupted/absent early care

“…As such, we considered it appropriate for the purposes of the analyses in this paper to group together all of the youths exposed to disrupted/absent caregiving into one Disrupted/Absent Care group. The experience of parental separation followed by institutionalization and/or switches in caregiving homes are themselves significant stressors to a developing infant (Dozier et al, 2012(Dozier et al, , 2014Jiménez-Morago et al, 2015), in addition to a range of other possible adversities (e.g., abuse, neglect, abandonment).…”

The impact of care-related factors on the language and communication needs of looked after and adopted children/young people

“…While entry into care is thought to improve outcomes for maltreated children, not every young person’s experience of care is optimal and a range of care-related factors can impact developmental and psychological outcomes (Tarren-Sweeney, 2008). Children in foster care, for example, have been reported to have unfavorable cognitive, educational and psychosocial outcomes in comparison to children in adoptive placements (Jiménez-Morago et al, 2015; Vinnerljung & Hjern, 2011). In addition, adopted children have been shown to develop better-quality peer relationships than foster children (DeLuca et al, 2019).…”