The Development and Adjustment of 7‐year‐old Children Adopted in Infancy

Abstract

The present study (N l 159) provides evidence of an increased risk for behavior problems of infant-placed 7-year-old internationally, transracially adopted children in the Netherlands. However, parents reported more behavior problems for adopted boys than for adopted girls. Notably, about 30 % of the adopted children were classified as clinical on the CBCL scale for total problems, which is a much larger percentage than the 10 % found in the normative population. It was suggested that these results could be explained by the operation of multiple risk factors before and after adoption placement, e.g. the child's genetic disposition, pre-natal and pre-adoption care, or the child's cognitive understanding of adoption in middle childhood. Also, results suggest that maternal sensitive responsiveness in adoptive families declines in the transition from early to middle childhood. In contrast to the home setting, the adopted children showed favorable behavioral and socioemotional adjustment at school, while their academic achievement and intelligence were in the normal range or above average. In particular Korean children had high IQs : 31 % of these children obtained an intelligence score above 120. It was suggested that adoptive parents seem to offer their children sufficient or even more than average cognitive stimulation. Furthermore, adopted girls scored higher in optimal ego-control, social competence, and peer group popularity than nonadopted girls from the general population : 30 % of the adopted girls were rated as popular by their classmates, which compares favorably to the 13 % found in the general school population.

Symptoms of disordered eating among adult international adoptees: A population‐based cohort study

“…Hypothetically, the small differences that were found may reflect the higher prevalence in the international adoptee population of symptoms of attention-deficit/ hyperactivity-disorder (Lindblad et al, 2010) and other externalizing behavioural problems (Bimmel et al, 2003;Stams et al, 2000;Verhulst et al, 1992;Verhulst, Althaus, & Versluis-den Bieman, 1990a;Verhulst & Versluis-den Bieman, 1995;Verhulst, Versluis-den Bieman, et al, 1990). Such features have been correlated with loss-of-control eating, self-induced vomiting, and other disordered eating behaviours that are primarily associated with bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder rather than with anorexia nervosa (Levin & Rawana, 2016).…”

Early adversity and children's regulatory deficits: Does postadoption parenting facilitate recovery in postinstitutionalized children?

“…However, timing of assessment may also play a role. The sample examined in Stams et al (2000) was evaluated at 7 years of age, and they noted that differences in parenting were not evident at earlier time points. It may be that over time, differences in parenting quality emerge.…”

Socioemotional Development in Changing Families

“…Although the children were generally functioning within the normal range, the surrogacy children showed higher levels of adjustment problems than did children conceived by gamete donation at Age 7, suggesting that the absence of a gestational connection between parents and children may be more problematic for children than the absence of a genetic link . Interestingly, infant-placed internationally adopted children have been found to show a similar increase in behavioral problems at Age 7 (Stams, Juffer, Rispens, & Hoksbergen, 2000), and both the surrogacy and the internationally adopted children's behavioral problems had reduced when followed up at Age 10 and early adolescence, respectively. A possible explanation is that both groups of children struggle with identity issues earlier than other children do, as they must face up to being different at an early age.…”