Review of Psychiatric Literature on Adopted Children

A fresh look at genealogical bewilderment

“…Whether genealogical anxiety or uncertainty can be regarded as a common source of emotional disturbance in those reared by substitute parents is debatable. For some years now there has been general agreement on the raised incidence of psychiatric referrals among adopted children and adolescents (Lawton & Gross, 1964;Pringle, 1967;Hersov, 1985). Although the explanation of this consistent trend is still not entirely clear, it may well be related to pre-adoptive inadequacies and discontinuities of care among those placed after infancy.…”

Perceived Child-Parent Relationships and Child Adjustment in Families with Both Adopted and Natural Children

“…Other investigators, however, have found that when random sampling procedures replaced a frequency count of adopted children seen in clinics, adopted children did not encounter more emotional problems than non-adopted children (Borgatta § Fanshel, 1965;Lawton § Gross, 1964;Raleigh, 1954), Many followup studies investigating emotional problems of adopted children have found that severity of behavior and emotional problems of children can be directly correlated with the age of the child at the time of placement for adoption, and with the apparent degree of maternal deprivation (McWhinnie, 1967(McWhinnie, , 1970Offord, 1969;Witmer, 1963). It follows that these same apparently troubled children, barring successful therapeutic intervention, could continue to have adjustment difficulties including identity problems in late adolescence (Sorosky, Baran § Pannor, 1975.…”

Adoption: Legal Resolution or Legal Fraud?

“…Lawton and Gross (7) reviewed many thorny and inconclusive questions raised by the literature on adoption. They doubted that adopted children constitute a significant number of those treated for psychiatric problems as stated by several clinicians; however, they referred to clinical “hunches” that even though the symptoms described by parents of both natural and adopted sounded similar, there appeared to be a difference—“as a group they (adopted children) were extremely disturbed” (13, p. 639).…”

“…They feel that learning about being adopted “need not be traumatic or anxiety‐evoking unless the parents communicate to the child that this is a highly anxious topic and indicate that they expect problems…. reasonably secure adoption parents can tell the preschool child about his adoption without necessarily providing the stimuli for negative emotional reaction” (7, p. 640).…”