The Problems of Adopted Children (Annotated Bibliography)

Soares, J., Ralha, S., Barbosa-Ducharne, M., & Palacios, J. (2019). Adoption-related gains, losses, and difficulties: The adopted child's perspective. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 36(3), 259-268.

The article is a current study exploring the advantages, disadvantages, and difficulties relating to the adoption of children who have been separated from their birth parents. The research states that the numerous adoption experiences are directly linked to gains, losses, and difficulties. Despite the varying perceptions of the gains, losses, and difficulties, a better percentage of the participants express contentment with adoption because they have gained much compared to their pre-adoption experiences. Although some losses and difficulties may come up as a result of adoption, including losing previous relationships and family members, adoption illustrates numerous gains that enhance adopted individuals' physical, emotional, and mental well-being. The article is highly relevant to the broader subject of adoptive parenting and childhood experiences because it avails the relationship between adoption gains, losses, and difficulties that may come from the same. In this context, the article acts as critical scholarly material that forms a foundation for future researchers regarding the benefits, challenges, and losses that may arise from child adoption.

Banez, T. (2017). “All teenagers have problems, whether they’re adopted or not”: Discourses on adolescence and adoption among parents of transnationally adopted teens. Qualitative Social Work, 16(3), 394-410.

The research tries to evaluate whether adolescence contributes to particular behavioral traits in adopted children to establish a link between adoption and changes of behaviors. Adolescence as the transition stage that brings out complexity, complications, and uncertainties in individuals is explored to understand whether it has a connection to the extensive tensions and social unrest in adopted individuals. The relevance of the research is that it undertakes a critical analysis by employing significant methodologies that help analyze data regarding the issue. As stated, without the cases of the adversely affected adopted children, challenges, tensions, and uncertainties inhibited in adolescents are faced equally for families with adopted children and those with non-adopted children. As a reflection, adoption does not contribute to behavioral variations in adolescents. However, difficulties developed from social discourse regarding kinship, which may impose stigma in adoptive families and may lead to behavioral variations. The research is accurate, trustworthy, and correct because the author is authoritative, and it has been cited and updated in the recent past. It forms a vital foundation for further research.

Torres‐Gomez, B., Alonso‐Arbiol, I., & Gallarin, M. (2020). Attachment to parents and aggressiveness in adopted adolescents: A Multi‐sample comparison study. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 30, 46-54.

The research is a current piece of literature that evaluates the degree of attachment in community-adopted adolescence concerning security to their parents and their aggressiveness while critically comparing them with non-adopted adolescents. The research seeks the link between attachment security to parents and the degree of hostility with adoption. The study is relevant because it offers information within the broader relation of adoption and the levels of attachment and individual aggressiveness. The study showed no connection between the two aspects since results illustrated that attachment security and aggressiveness were similar for adopted and non-adopted teens. Critically, adoption does not influence aggressiveness in teens and the attachment security to their parents. Additionally, despite that adversely affected adopted teens may express worse outcomes regarding their level of aggressiveness and attachments to parents, the general results and conclusions show that in typical cases, there are no existing differences of adopted and non-adopted teens on the issue of aggressiveness and parental attachment. The study is accurate and correct because it utilizes structural research methodologies, thus acting as a critical foundation for further research.

Elam, K. K., Harold, G. T., Neiderhiser, J. M., Reiss, D., Shaw, D. S., Natsuaki, M. N., ... & Leve, L. D. (2014). Adoptive parent hostility and children’s peer behavior problems: Examining the role of genetically informed child attributes on adoptive parent behavior. Developmental Psychology, 50(5), 1543.

The research evaluates the criterion in which a socially disruptive environment may contribute to poor social behaviors, emotional development, and academic performances in peers. The social environment being critical to the development of individuals and specifically teens, the study aims at exploring the existence of links between the social environment, specifically the family processes, and their influence on children’s behavioral traits. The research is relevant because it examines the relationship between the family process or the environment of growth with the child’s social behaviors. In relation to this, the study states that a growth environment has an extensive relation to the behavioral traits in children. For instance, less behavioral motivation from the birth mother may result in low social motivation for toddlers. Similarly, hostility between the father and child may result in disruptive behaviors. It is not the case for adopted children because there is no genetic relatedness between the two individuals. In reflection, disruptive behaviors do not prevail in adopted children due to a lack of genetic connection. The research is significant since it avails accurate information, which can be helpful in future explorations.

Palm, S. M., Sawrikar, V., Schollar-Root, O., Moss, A., Hawes, D. J., & Dadds, M. R. (2019). Parents’ spontaneous attributions about their problem child: Associations with parental mental health and child conduct problems. Journal of abnormal child psychology, 47(9), 1455-1466.

The research is a current piece of literature that examines the extent to which random acknowledgments by parents to the child may influence the disposition and interactive traits and the quality of interaction between parents and children. The article is relevant because it tries to establish a association between parental acknowledgments and the child’s social behaviors. According to the research, there is an extensive link between parental credits and the development of specific behaviors in children. Ascriptions play a significant part in the child’s social development. When parents acknowledge their children from time to time, they end up developing good social traits. In relation, parental mental health may also influence disruptive social behaviors. From this perspective, positive parental attributions were extensively linked with the development of vital social attributes, whereas negative attributions influenced negative traits that could influence mental health problems for the child and their parents. The research is significant because it offers information regarding the relationship between attribution and social behaviors and mental health issues. The study acts as a fundamental basis for future studies.