Patterns of adversity and post-traumatic stress among children adopted from care

Anthony, Rebecca; Paine, Amy L.; Westlake, Meryl F.; Lowthian, Emily; Shelton, Katherine Helen

doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104795

Cited by 10 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 84 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Secondly, given the importance of trauma approaches in organising much post-adoption support, it is notable that trauma was a relatively low-level concern for parents compared to a wide range of other issues. This is consistent with recent research on UK adoptees in which less than a fifth of children had clinical or borderline clinical post-traumatic stress symptoms (Anthony et al, 2022). Again, we know very little about how adopters understand trauma, nor indeed how practitioners conceptualise trauma in relation to adoption or care experienced children, but it seems likely that a similar issue of notable variations in understanding apply here as for attachment (e.g., McGuire et al, 2022), and there has been concern that 'concept creep' has applied especially to the construct of trauma (Baes et al, 2023) and that has led to a psychiatrization of everyday experiences (Haslam et al, 2021).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Adoptive parents’ satisfaction with child and adolescent mental services and their mental health concerns over time: A question of fit?

Woolgar,

Pinto,

González

2023

Developmental Child Welfare

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Little is known about adoptive parents’ experiences of and satisfaction with statutory child and adolescent mental services (CAMHS) in the UK, nor of parental concerns about their adopted children’s mental health and well-being. Ninety-eight adoptive parents completed an online survey about their satisfaction with services as well as their mental health concerns for their child currently and retrospectively at the point of adoption. Parental concerns were diverse, and many overlapped with issues that CAMHS could normally help with. Attachment was the primary concern initially, but this decreased over time in placement; while challenging behaviour was the highest rated current concern, along with aspects of general functioning such as peer relations, social skills and education. Unexpectedly, trauma was a relatively low concern at both timepoints. There were very high levels of dissatisfaction with CAMHS, evident across questions of access, engagement and quality of services, all at levels much higher than typically reported by general samples. Adoptive parents’ substantial dissatisfaction with CAMHS occurred despite an apparent fit between many parental concerns and the kinds of services typically offered in CAMHS. There remains a significant challenge to develop a shared understanding between parents and services of adopted children’s needs, especially given the absence of data about adopted children’s mental health and wellbeing problems.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Adoptive parents’ satisfaction with child and adolescent mental services and their mental health concerns over time: A question of fit?

Woolgar,

Pinto,

González

2023

Developmental Child Welfare

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…If emotional neglect occurred early in life, social and emotional rehabilitation deficiencies could be seen after being inflicted with traumatic stress [ 73 , 74 , 75 ]. A four-year longitudinal research on adopted children who experienced emotional neglect showed that children were in the clinical or borderline ranges for symptoms of post-traumatic stress arousal (19%), avoidance (14%), and intrusion (8%) [ 76 ]. Figure 1 provides a general overview of the information about emotional care discussed in this section.…”

Section: Factors Moderating the Impact Of The Stressormentioning

confidence: 99%

A Public Health Perspective of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Jowf

Ahmed

et al. 2022

IJERPH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Trauma exposure is one of the most important and prevalent risk factors for mental and physical ill-health. Prolonged or excessive stress exposure increases the risk of a wide variety of mental and physical symptoms, resulting in a condition known as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The diagnosis might be challenging due to the complex pathophysiology and co-existence with other mental disorders. The prime factor for PTSD development is exposure to a stressor, which variably, along with peritraumatic conditions, affects disease progression and severity. Additionally, many factors are thought to influence the response to the stressor, and hence reshape the natural history and course of the disease. With sufficient knowledge about the disease, preventive and intervenient methods can be implemented to improve the quality of life of the patients and to limit both the medical and economic burden of the disease. This literature review provides a highlight of up-to-date literature on traumatic stress, with a focus on causes or triggers of stress, factors that influence response to stress, disease burden, and the application of the social-ecological public health model of disease prevention. In addition, it addresses therapeutic aspects, ethnic differences in traumatic stress, and future perspectives, including potential biomarkers.

show abstract

“…In the UK, children are removed from the family home when it is determined their birth family is unable to care for them [11], and most spend time in temporary kinship or foster care [20]. Studies indicate that adoptees' mental health problems are, at least in part, attributable to their pre-adoptive history, such as their early experiences of adversity (in most cases, abuse or neglect, [21,22]) and instability in living arrangements [23], where children adopted later in childhood and in sibling groups are likely to experience more severe problems associated with spending more time with their birth family and in care [24][25][26]. Given adopted children's early experiences and support needs [27,28] and that, primarily, parents seek additional support with the aim of improving their child's emotional health and wellbeing [29], it is likely that some parents decrease their work hours (to the possible detriment of their financial situation) to meet the psychological needs of their child(ren) [8,24].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adoptive parents’ finances and employment status: a 5-year longitudinal study

Paine

Fahey

Thompson

et al. 2022

Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We investigated risk and facilitating factors related to families’ change in finances and employment over 5 years following adoption of a child from local authority care in a prospective, longitudinal study of children placed for adoption between 2014 and 2015 (N = 96). Parents completed questionnaires at approximately 5, 21, 36, 48 and 60 months post-placement. We used time series analysis to examine the impact of child (e.g. pre-placement experiences, mental health), family structure (e.g. number of siblings, parent relationship status), and parent (e.g. mental health) factors on change in household income and parent employment status after adoption. We also examined the tendency for parents to comment on employment and finances and the emotional valence of their comments to gauge their concern about their circumstances. Children’s mental health problems were associated with primary caregivers reducing their time spent in employment and parents’ tendency to comment on their financial and work circumstances. Children who experienced more moves in care were more likely to have a primary caregiver not in full-time work, as were children with higher prosocial behaviour scores. Being in full-time work was associated with parents’ symptoms of anxiety. We also detected associations between structural features of the family and changes in income and employment. This study represents one of the first empirical investigations of factors associated with the socioeconomic features of adoptive families’ lives and informs ongoing discussion regarding the support needs of families and the timing, nature, and delivery of post-adoption professional services.

show abstract

Patterns of adversity and post-traumatic stress among children adopted from care

Cited by 10 publications

References 84 publications

Adoptive parents’ satisfaction with child and adolescent mental services and their mental health concerns over time: A question of fit?

Adoptive parents’ satisfaction with child and adolescent mental services and their mental health concerns over time: A question of fit?

A Public Health Perspective of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Adoptive parents’ finances and employment status: a 5-year longitudinal study

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About