Children's Awareness of Adoption and Their Problem Behavior in Families with 7-Year-Old Internationally Adopted Children

Abstract

Associations between children's awareness of adoption and their problem behavior were examined in 176 Dutch families with 7-year-old early-adopted children from Sri Lanka, Korea, and Colombia. The adoptive mothers were involved in an interview and both mothers and teachers completed a questionnaire on behavior problems. According to the mothers, the majority of the adopted children did not experience negative reactions from others. All but two children under stood the difference between adoption and birth, and 74% of the children showed interest in their adoption. Several children had expressed the wish to be white (Sri Lanka: 59%; Colombia: 32%; Korea: 23%) or the wish that they were born in the family (27%). In children from Sri Lanka and Colombia but not in Korean children, these wishes predicted mother-reported and teacher-reported behavior problems. In middle childhood, internationally adopted children may struggle with being and looking different. It is suggested that these findings may be partly explained by attachment theory.

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