Introduction
The reason I picked this question is because of my cousin. She was adopted by my aunt and uncle when she was about 7 years old. A few years in she started to show signs of a mental disorder. After a few doctor's appointments, she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Ever since then, I have always wondered if being adopted had anything to do with it. I also wondered if other children are being affected by mental illnesses because of their adoption. Does it have anything to do with their new families? These are some of the things I am hoping to learn the answer to.
Findings
Margaret A. Keyes, Anu Sharma, Irene J. Elkins, William G. Iacono, And Matt McGue assessed from 1994 to 2004. Their objective was to determine whether adopted youth are at excess risk for clinically relevant behavioral and emotional problems. Their results showed that adoptees scored only moderately higher than non-adoptees on quantitative measures of mental health. So what causes the mental health problems to increase if they are an adoptee? According to most websites I have done research on, the reason for it to be increased varies between the type of adoptions but some reasons can be Stress during pregnancy, Neglect/abuse, or genetics.
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An unprofessional name for the emotional effects is Adopted child syndrome. The symptoms of this are Low self-esteem, Depression, Anxiety, depressive disorder, and Separation anxiety disorder. This results in Developmental Delays: Adopted children could reach physical and emotional development milestones late. They may not be able to do things that kids of their age usually do, or they may think and behave younger than their age. Eating Disorders: Their pre-adoption life makes children anxious eaters. They may have grown up under circumstances where food was scarce.
Solutions and problems
Adoption at different ages is an issue. The emotional effects can be a lot different for a child adopted at the age of 1 than a child adopted at 15. Nearly 271,833 were adopted in the world over the past few years. Out of these adoptions, about 100,000 of them were less than 1 year old but there were only 41,318 that were between the ages of 5 and 12. Children between 5 and 12 are just discovering themselves. If they are in an orphanage during these years, it is hard for them. That is one of the reasons people adopt them when they are younger because they want to be able to raise them during the crucial years of their life. But, that ends up leaving thousands of children in the orphanage. One way we can fix this is by having a children’s home. This would be a home for orphans or foster kids between the ages of 5-18. This house will provide a place for kids to grow and learn. It would not be a strict place, it would be a place where kids and teens can feel loved and cared for. It would have staff that comes in shifts and a head of house, who will be in charge of the children. The staff and Heads of the house would be there to fill the place of parents and family. We could have family rooms. These would be for the children who have siblings or a single parent who wants to live with them. Children could still be adopted while they were at this house. This house could fix the problem by giving kids the space and materials needed to discover themselves.
Opinion (my opinion how has it changed I did and still do believe that there are emotional effects on adoptees. Of course, adoptees are going to have these emotional problems because it is stressful to move houses as it is but just imagine having to move house without your family and move into a whole different family. I now also think that there are circumstances that affect them. Age, family, and process of adoption are just some of these circumstances. For example, if a child is born then is put up for adoption the next day then gets adopted just hours later, his emotional effects are, most probably, not as strong as a child who spends half of his childhood in an orphanage and then gets adopted and moved to a new place. If a child loses her parents and then gets adopted, she will not only have trauma from losing her parents but she will also have the stress of moving to a new environment.
I think that it is unfair to adoptees because they can't control who they go to or how they are treated. I think that the adoption agency should put more thought into who they are sending where because where they send them can affect the child in different ways. If you send a Muslim child to a Christian neighborhood there would be a huge after-effect.
Summary and conclusions
There are emotional effects of adoption on adoptees. Adoptees have a higher chance of developing these emotions. There is also a different effect depending on their new family or location. It is not only child adoptees but adults who also have been affected because of their adoption. They could feel abandoned or feel like their family did not want them. Adults also can project their feelings onto others which will make it so their adoption will affect everyone around them. I have learned that orphanages or adoption agencies should pay more attention to the children they are adopting out and where they are going. If they used my idea of a Children's home it could fix the problem of children not being adopted during their crucial years by giving them space and time to grow. This is important because I think that the percentage of adoptees with mental disorders will go down if they can discover themselves in a safe environment.
In conclusion, children are fragile and if they go through a traumatic experience they are even more fragile. We need to pay more attention to adoptees and be mindful of where they are coming from and what they have been through.
Sources
- http://archive.pov.org/offandrunning/fact-sheet/
- https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/Intercountry-Adoption/adopt_ref/adoption-statistics.html
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4475346/
- http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/04/13/children.adoption.mental.health/index.html
- https://creatingafamily.org/adoption-category/mental-health-issues-with-adopted-children/
- https://adoption.org/psychological-emotional-effects-can-adopted-children-suffer
- https://www.mentalhelp.net/articles/long-term-issues-for-the-adopted-child/
- https://www.momjunction.com/articles/adopted-child-syndrome_00375730/#gref
- https://partnersforourchildren.org/blog/what-does-age-have-do-adoption-0
- https://adoptionnetwork.com/adoption-statistics
- http://archive.pov.org/offandrunning/fact-sheet/
- https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/Intercountry-Adoption/adopt_ref/adoption-statistics.html
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4475346/
- http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/04/13/children.adoption.mental.health/index.html
- https://creatingafamily.org/adoption-category/mental-health-issues-with-adopted-children/
- https://adoption.org/psychological-emotional-effects-can-adopted-children-suffer
- https://www.mentalhelp.net/articles/long-term-issues-for-the-adopted-child/
- https://www.momjunction.com/articles/adopted-child-syndrome_00375730/#gref
- https://partnersforourchildren.org/blog/what-does-age-have-do-adoption-0
- https://adoptionnetwork.com/adoption-statistics
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