The Psychological Adjustment of United States Adopted Adolescents and Their Nonadopted Siblings

Abstract

Using data from a national sample of 715 United States adoptive families, comparisons were made between adopted adolescents and birth adolescents (children born to the adoptive parents) on the Youth Self-Report (Achenbach), 8 psychological and behavioral adjustment factor scales from the Attitudes and Behaviors survey (Benson), and an identity scale (Search Institute). Multivariate, followed by univariate, analyses of variance showed significant differences between the 2 groups on the psychological factor scales of Licit Drug Use and School Adjustment. A subsample of nonclinically referred adopted adolescents were also compared to norms on the Youth Self-Report. Nonreferred adopted boys showed higher levels of adjustment than the norm group on Withdrawn behaviors. Nonreferred adopted girls showed better adjustment than the norm group on Social Problems and Withdrawn behaviors and poorer adjustment on Delinquent Behavior and Externalizing behavior. (Standardized effect sizes were in the small to moderate range.) These same patterns were evidenced when controlling for ethnicity. These data are examined within Brodzinsky's stress and coping model of adoptee adjustment and support a body of adoption research that finds a pattern of small but significant differences between adopted and nonadopted persons. The differences showing poorer adoptee adjustment in comparison to nonadoptees should not be overstated as is sometimes the case in the adoption clinical literature, and areas in which adoptees evidence higher levels of psychological functioning should be further researched.

Conduct Problems in Adopted and Non-Adopted Adolescents and Adoption Satisfaction as a Protective Factor

“…Our measure of adoption satisfaction is not widely used, and only one other study using the same measure has been published (Sharma et al, 1998). The validity for this measure is not well established, and the internal consistencies of the domains were not uniformly high.…”

“…A 79-item questionnaire was administered to the adopted participants in order to assess their adoption satisfaction (Sharma et al, 1998). Two scales from this questionnaire were examined.…”

Identity Development in a Transracial Environment: Racial/Ethnic Minority Adoptees in Minnesota

“…General identity was measured using the Personality Supplement for Siblings questionnaire (Sharma, McGue, & Benson, 1998), which measured adoptees’ overall sense of well-being (e.g. “I have a good sense of who I am”; 13-item scale, α = .88).…”

“…Affect regarding adoption was measured using the Opinions About Adoption questionnaire (Sharma et al, 1998), which measured adoptees’ attitudes regarding their adoption and adoptive status (e.g. “I think my parents would love me more if I were their birth child”; 12-item scale, α =.87).…”

Impact of Inuit customary adoption on behavioral problems in school-age Inuit children.

“…Some studies found that adopted children have higher scores on aggressive and impulsive behavior measures than non-adopted children (Hawk & McCall, 2010; Wiik et al, 2011), but others have reported no difference in externalizing behaviors (Gagnon-Oosterwaal et al, 2012; Maughan, Collishaw, & Pickles, 1998). When observed, group differences have been hypothesized to result spuriously from a small proportion of adopted children having greater difficulties (Hauggard, 1998; Sharma, McGue, & Benson, 1998). Adverse prenatal environmental factors that may be more frequent among adopted children, such as foetal exposure to tobacco, alcohol, and substance use, have been linked to an increase in externalizing problems at school age (Brodzinsky, 1993; Crea, Guo, Barth, & Brooks, 2009).…”