What is adoption? Do you think adoption has a negative effect on children? How does it affect the individual who gets involved? Are all this question you get pissed up or stress? don’t freq out it has an ample number of plus points for the family as well as adopted family.
A multitude of issues may arise when kids become aware that they have been adopted. Children may feel grief (R) over the loss of a relationship with their birth parents and the loss of the cultural and family connections that would exist with those parents.
In this article, we will focus on the effects of adoption on children, its positive and negative effects of on children. We will also focus on the psychological and as well as the long term effects of adoption (R) on a child.
What is Adoption?
“Adoption is not about finding children for families, it’s about finding families for children”.- Joyce Maguire Pavao, founder of the Adoption Resource Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The adoption is a process where the children deprived of a family to get the people that they can call their own and near ones. The childless couples don’t remain deprived of the joy of being from better parenting. Each and every child has a right to grow in a healthy environment. Here is where exactly what adoption endorses. Adoption is more or less defined as a legal procedure that makes the birth child of a couple, but the legal child of someone else. It is a process involving three parties, such as birth parents, the adoptee and the adoptive parents. Moreover, its effects on all three parties (R).
Effects of Adoption On Children:
Certain effects of adoption on children (R) are as follows; they are as follows
1. Poor Academics:
The adopted child may not be able to outperform their non-adopted sibling in related to reading, moth, and academics. Many studies have revealed that adoption may hamper the academics performance (R) of the adopted children if they don’t receive adequate support and love. However, if the adopted child takes a special interest in your adoptee’s education then your adopted child may excel in studies and other related activities to academics. The parents should encourage the child to learn and excel in academics (R).
2. The feeling of Rejection:
The adopted child feel the sense of rejection and abandonment at a point in their life when she/he would learn about her adoption, this situation or circumstances happen in 95% of cases as per the studies. The child may wonder what made her birth parents put her up for adoption, why they abandoned her, was anything wrong with them, or did they dislike her, all this ample number of question arise in the mid of an adopted child. The feeling of rejection (R) may creep into negatively in the minds of the adopted child. So, make your adopted child feel that they are one of the important elements of your family.
3. Mourns For Their Birth Parents:
Along with grief, the adopted child mostly react to the loss of their birth parent with anger, numbness, anxiety, fear, and depression and mourn to learn about her birth culture or birth parents. Mourning for the birth culture is more prominent in trans-racial adoption than normal adoption as per the studies have proven. The adopted child may make an effort to learn and speak her mother tongue and learn more about her birth culture (R) and linguistic heritage. This directly effects on adopted child behavior and related problem.
4. Loss of Identity:
Adopted kids are more eager to learn about their biological family, siblings, and relatives than the non-adopted child. The adopted child may have an ample number of questions, such as who she is, does she resemble or look like her father or mother, do her siblings resemble her, and who are her grandparents, cousin, aunts, uncles and other relatives of near and dear ones. The adopted child may wonder which their social, cultural, and education class she belongs originally. The adopted child may bug you with questions regarding what experience she may have while staying with her biological family. This is one of the negative effects of adoption on children. In down of the article, we will focus more on the negative point or effect of the adoption of a baby.
5. Concern About Medical History:
The adopted child may not aware of their medical history and the parents (R) to don’t have full knowledge of the medical history of their adopted child. The accurate medical history aids in figure outing the right line of treatment. Any lack of medical information can become a challenging matter as it may fail to reveal whether the adopted child is at a high risk of suffering any from ailment due to heredity and the line of treatment will be most effective. In any such circumstances, the adopted child may wonder about their medical background (R).
The Effects Of Adoption On Child Development:
Children (R) who were adopted as infants are much more affected by the adoption throughout their lives in their lifespan. Children adopted later in life come to understand adoption during a different developmental stage of each life. Those who have experienced trauma or neglect may remember such experiences, which are further complicated of their self-image. The children gain an understanding of adoption as they grow from infancy through adolescence. Specific issues relevant to transracial adoptions (R) are beyond the scope of this statement and will not be addressed as per the other.
1. Infancy and Early Childhood:
During the infancy and early childhood, an adopted child attaches to and bonds with the primary caregiver. The Prenatal issues, such as the length of gestation, the mother’s use of drugs or alcohol, and genetic vulnerabilities, may, ultimately, affect a child’s ability to adjust at this stage. The temperament of the adopted child involved also plays a great role. Okun BF, Anderson CM. Understanding Diverse Families: What Practitioners Need to Know. New York: Guilford Press; 1996. p. 376. As a child approaches preschool age, he or she develops magical thinking, that is, the world of fantasy is used to explain that which he or she cannot comprehend. The child does not get to understand reproduction, and must first understand that he or she had a birth mother and was born the same way as other children.
Telling a child his or her adoption story at this early age may help parents to become comfortable with the language of adoption and the child’s birth story. Children need to know that they were adopted. Parents’ openness and degree of comfort create an environment that is conducive to when a child is asking questions about his or her adoption. Melina L. Raising Adopted Children: Practical Reassuring Advice for Every Adoptive Parent. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc; 1998.
2. School Aged Children:
Operational thinking, causality, and logical planning begin to emerge in this stage of child development on a school-aged child. The adopted child tries to understand and to master the world in which he or she lives. The child is more a problem solver in this stage. The adopted child realizes that most other children are living with at least one other biological relative. It is the first time that the child sees themselves as being different from other children. The child may struggle with the meaning of being adopted and may experience feelings of loss and sadness. Control may be an issue. A child may believe that he or she has had no control over losing family and being placed with another family. The child may need to have some bit of reassurance about day to day activities or may require repeated explanations about simple changes in the family’s routine. Transitions may be particularly difficult. The child may have an outright fear of abandonment, difficulty falling asleep and, even, kidnapping nightmares. Brodzinsky D, editor. The Psychology of Adoption. Oxford; Oxford University Press; 1990.
3. Adolescence:
The adolescent is a primary developmental task that establishes an identity while actively seeking independence and separation from family. Okun BF, Anderson CM. Understanding Diverse Families: What Practitioners Need to Know. New York: Guilford Press; 1996. p. 376. The adopted adolescent child needs to make sense of both sets of parents, and this may cause a sense of divided loyalties and conflict. In early adolescence, the loss of childhood itself is a significant issue for the child. The adopted adolescent has already experienced loss, in making the transition to adolescence and even more complicated. This period of development may be difficult and confusing. The adopted adolescents may experience shame and loss of self-esteem, particularly because society’s image of birth parents is often negative here. Adopted adolescents’ search for information about themselves is quite very normal, and parents should not see this as a threat. Instead, parents’ willingness to accept their child’s dual heritage of biology and environment will help their child to accept that reality of their origin.
The Negative Effects Of Adaptation On a Child:
The effects of adoption on children affect the child behavior problem and many more. Let’s focus on a few of the negative effects it does on the adoption of children
- Research has shown that adopted children have higher chances of developing mental and behavioral disorders. Those living in foster care homes where their care was neglected for a long period of time are at a higher risk of certain kind of facing some problems in their development.
- Adopted children become more vulnerable, emotionally. As they know they were not involved in a lot of the decision as they are adopted and they realize that they had no control over the loss of their birth family and the choice of their adoptive family. There is a feeling of loss of control in the children that being adopted as they have no role in choosing who they would live with for the rest of their lives. It’s not easy to accept the fact that someone has ‘chosen (R)’ you to be their children.
- During their teenage years, the adoptee’s children may start feeling of lonely or rejection. They may wait for their birth parents and feel an intense need to search for who they were and why they put them up for adoption. They search for their self identify.
- The adopted child may feel insecure because they are questioned about their birth parents and other blood relations.
- The adopted children lose one identity and borrow another from the other family which adopts them. This leads to a self-identity crisis.
- Many issues intrinsic to the adoption experience come together when the adoptee reaches adolescence. At this time, there is an acute awareness of being adopted. There is a drive towards liberation accompanied by the urge to develop one’s own identity.
- Living with the Senior that you are an adopted child become difficult
- The adopted children realize that their biological parents decided not to look after them. This may trigger feelings of unwantedness in adopted children. They are also be affected by the separation from their parents.
- It is quite difficult for the adopted children to accept the adoptive family as their own.
Psychological Effects on Adopted Child:
The Adopted children may struggle with self-esteem and identity development issues more so than their non-adopted peers. This is the major psychological effect (R) that effect adopted children. Some of the other effects are as follows:-
- Identity issues are of particular concern for teens who are aware of what they are adopted and even more so, for those adopted in closed or semi-open circumstance. Such adopted children are often wondering why they were given up for adoption and many more questions arise. They may also wonder about what their birth family looks like, acts like, does for a living, etc.
- The child may struggle with the knowledge that they may have a whole other family out there that include half-siblings and extended family members that they may never meet off.
- These issues may still arise in open adoption circumstances or situation, but in that case, adopted children may have the opportunity to form some relation of relationship with their birth mother so as to gain direct access to relevant information.
- The Guilt feelings may accompany such self-identity issues and concerns.
- The Adopted children may feel as though they are betraying their adoptive family or children and that they will hurt their adoptive family by expressing their desire to learn about their birth family.
- in a best-case scenario, adopted children do not have to wonder how their adoptive family members feel about their interest in their birth parents because adoptive parents will have addressed these concerns directly in the previous conversation. Even in such a best case of scenario, the emotions may still somewhat painful or difficult.
Positive Effects of Adoption On The Child:
- The adoptees who come from families that lacked financial support to raise them or bring them, and get a stable family where their needs are taken care of. They are able to obtain a good education and lead a comfortable life.
- Children may be put up for adoption because one or both their parents are involved in substance abuse or are physically abusive. In this case, the adoptees are freed from the emotional turmoil and instability that they would have experienced with their parents who have given them birth. On being adopted into a good family, they are able to lead a peaceful life.
- On being adopted, children who would have been uncared for to get a place to call home. They get a family that is eager to give them love, care, and security many more.
- Children in foster care systems may have special needs which are taken care of by the family they are adopted into. They get a family setting, which allows for better emotional development.
Children of single parents get a two parent home and maybe even siblings, thus aiding their social and emotional development.
Adoption in itself is a very beautiful process and life changes completely giving a sense of love and affection each day. These things you should never say to adoptive parents as it only hurts them and also shows that you do not have a heart either even if you are trying to show concern. The effects of adoption on children are identical to that of traditionally raised children.
