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 the history of adoption

Adoption is not a new phenomenon but something that has been practiced for centuries. The original purpose and intent of adoption was to supply children to parents who could not have children of their own, but after World War II, the central focus was to find homes and parents for the many orphaned children. By 1993, there were as many as 85,000 adoptions taking place in the United States, yet, there is very little research regarding the outcomes of these placements.

Adopted children are over-represented in both clinical outpatient and in-patient mental health settings, as well as in school system special education programs. A study by Rhodes (1997) found that of the 380 adopted children in their study, one in four had a strong pattern of dysfunctional behavior. Likewise, a large-scale national health survey found that although adopted children under the age of eighteen make up approximately 2% of the population, they made up approximately 5% of children referred to outpatient mental health clinics. Between 10-15% of children in residential care facilities and inpatient psychiatric settings are adopted. In educational settings, adopted children make up 36% of referrals for behavior problems versus 14% of the referrals for non-adopted children. These referrals are for neurological impairment, attention deficit disorder, perceptual impairment, educational difficulties and emotional, social, and behavioral difficulties.

However, not all children who are adopted seem to be at risk. Children who were institutionalized and then adopted in later life tend to exhibit less attachment related behaviors and developmental difficulties. Others suggest that children adopted before the age of six months do not differ from the non-adopted population. And evidence is conflicting. Marquis and Detweiler (1985) and Benson, Sharma, & Roehlkepartain (1994) both studies adopted adolescents and found their feelings of self-esteem, confidence, disposition to be the same as non-adopted adolescents.

Because 10-13% of all adoptions disrupt, it is important to better understand what factors contribute to the success or failure of adjustment. Researchers have failed to distinguish between early-placed and late-placed adoptees, and between children with minimal disruption and those with multiple disruptions. Likewise, there is little empirical information about the outcome of domestic adoption in comparison to international adoptions or the relationship between type of placement and outcome of adoption adjustment. 

There are many factors contributing to adoption adjustment including parental neglect or abuse, frequent changes in the caregiver or the environment such as the result of foster placement, the age of the child at the time of adoption, pre-placement factors such as poverty, alcoholism, maternal depression, or drug exposure, the length of the child’s stay. 

Yarrow and Goodwin (1973) found that among infants studied that had no pathological care other than a change in caregiver between birth and sixteen months of age, only 15% were completely free of disturbances; 36% evidenced mild reactions, 20% had severe reactions, and 6% showed extremely disturbed behavior immediately following the change. Some researchers suggest that international adoptees have more trouble adjusting than domestic because of identity formation.

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