Is there a common pathway to maladjustment for internationally adopted and non-adopted adolescents?

Abstract

The main purpose of the research was to test whether cumulative effects represent a common pathway to behavioral maladjustment for internationally adopted adolescents and controls. The findings of previous comparison and follow-up studies have been contradictory. The hypothesis was tested in an original multi-informant study with 74 adolescents: 40 adoptees and 34 controls. The analyses of the data provided arguments in favor of the existence of a common pathway for adoptees and controls. The accumulation of risk factors in the current characteristics of the adolescents and their family was significantly associated with behavioral outcomes of both adoptees and controls. Implications for research, policy and practice are discussed. The main purpose of the research was to test whether cumulative effects represent a common pathway to behavioral maladjustment for internationally adopted adolescents and controls. The findings of previous comparison and follow-up studies have been contradictory. The hypothesis was tested in an original multi-informant study with 74 adolescents: 40 adoptees and 34 controls. The analyses of the data provided arguments in favor of the existence of a common pathway for adoptees and controls. The accumulation of risk factors in the current characteristics of the adolescents and their family was significantly associated with behavioral outcomes of both adoptees and controls. Implications for research, policy and practice are discussed.© 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.The literature on adoption is vast and rich. One of the major lines of research is comparison studies in which adopted participants are compared with control participants. In this set of studies, the fact of being adopted is considered as a risk factor per se that can lead to significant developmental differences in favor of the control participants. Another major line of research is follow-up studies analyzing the influence of deprivation severity (e.g., age of adoption, pre-adoption abuse or neglect) and other key-risk factors (e.g., age of the biological mother, low birth weight, drug exposure) on behavioral outcomes in adoptees. Because adoption research has been more concerned with outcomes than processes (Palacios, Román, Moreno, & León, 2009), we found in these two sets of studies contradictory arguments with regard to the main question of the current research, i.e. is there a common pathway to behavioral maladjustment for internationally adopted and nonadopted adolescents? In particular, do cumulative effects constitute a common pathway for this issue? The cumulative effect hypothesis is tested here as a well-known pathway in developmental psychopathology (Cicchetti & Rogosch, 1996), by considering current adolescent and family factors, i.e. IQ, attachment and parenting, and their cumulative effect on behavioral maladjustment. After a presentation of the cumulative effect hypothesis, arguments in favor of a negative answer to the main question will be presented first before others supporting a positive a...

Aggressiveness in Adopted and Non-Adopted Teens: The Role of Parenting, Attachment Security, and Gender

“…In spite of adopted adolescents’ more difficult previous rearing experiences—e.g., loss, maltreatment, neglect [ 89 ]—the present study showed that the contribution of coercion/imposition and acceptance/involvement parenting practices to attachment security and aggressiveness was the same in these teens as in non-adopted counterparts. This result gives additional support to the idea of a common pathway to behavioral difficulties for adopted and non-adopted teens [ 59 ].…”

“…The same variables that account for normative non-adopted adolescents’ outcomes can also explain adopted teens’ psychological development. In fact, there is some support to the idea of a common pathway to behavioral difficulties for adopted and non-adopted teens [ 59 ]; these authors observed that it was the aggregation of risk factors (IQ, attachment, and parenting) in adolescents and in their families, which was significantly related to maladjustment in both adoptees and non-adoptees. In the same vein, as it is the case in normative non-adopted adolescents [ 26 , 60 ], there is some evidence that secure attachment to adoptive parents can mediate the links between parenting styles and adopted children’s [ 61 ] and adolescents’ outcomes [ 62 ].…”

Attachment to Parents and Aggressiveness in Adopted Adolescents: A Multi‐Sample Comparison Study

“…Furthermore, it could indicate the possibility that differences between adoptees and comparison adolescents are attributable to inter‐individual differences rather than to group differences because of the heterogeneity of the internationally adopted population (Lindblad, Weitoft, & Hjern, ). In fact, Roskam and Stievenart's () study provided arguments in favor of the existence of a common pathway to behavioral difficulties for adopted and nonadopted adolescents: it is the accumulation of risk factors (IQ, attachment, and parenting) in the current characteristics of the adolescents and their families that is significantly associated with maladjustment in both adoptees and nonadoptees.…”

“…A similar conceptualization/measurement problem may be mentioned in Roskam and Stievenart's () study, which explored whether cumulative effects represented a common pathway to behavioral maladjustment for internationally adopted adolescents ( n = 40) and sociodemographically matched nonadopted counterparts ( n = 34). Attachment was identified as a risk factor, and no differences in attachment scores were found between adopted and nonadopted teens.…”

Attachment across the lifespan: insights from adoptive families

“…In contrast, there is limited evidence that early maltreatment or institutionalization have long-term effects on adoptive individuals' attachment security within the adoptive parent-child relationship. Parents report few differences in the attachment behaviors of children adopted after experiencing adversity and non-adopted children [21][22][23][24][25], and adopted children and adolescents do not report feeling less security in their relationships with their parents than non-adopted children [26][27][28].…”