New Finding Confirms Higher Rates of Mental Health Problems Among Adopted Children

FAMILY PRESERVATION ADVOCACY: New Finding Confirms Higher Rates of Mental Health Problems Among Adopted Children


The report is: "America’s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being 2011." A link to the report is provided here, in: The Truth About Adoption: All You Need Is Love, And A Safety Net.

The section on adoption collected data from: The American Community Survey, a large annual survey of the U.S. population, providing estimates of a variety of groups and their characteristics; the National Survey of Children’s Health survey of households with a focal child age of 0–17 about their children’s physical, emotional, and behavioral health and their experiences with the health care system; and The National Survey of Adoptive Parents.

The section begins with these words:

"Because children develop best in the context of families, adoptive families are sought for children whose birth families cannot care for them." CANNOT! That does not extend to pressuring young girls that it is best for them to seek two parents for their child who may or may not remained a two-parent family it does not say we should encourage young women to pursue further education or a career in favor of parenting their own children.

It goes on to say: "Yet cchildren who are adopted, particularly those adopted beyond the first months of life, experience disruptions in parenting that can have longstanding implications for their development and well-being. Even children adopted as infants face challenges with identity development and issues of loss and grief regarding birth parents."

As quoted here, adopted children have higher rates of mental health problems than all other children, according to a federal report on the health and well-being of U.S. children released on Thursday.

About 2.5 percent of U.S. children are adopted, but the National Institutes of Health report found the disruption that affects some children who are adopted after the first month of their lives may have long-term effects.

While it addresses learning disabilities behavioral problems it still relates these issues to fetal exposure to alcohol and other substances, or early abuse or neglect at the hands of their original parents or institutions. And it is not not confirming the kind of anecdotal data we know: that adoptees are over-represented in all mental health and youth facilities - some of which see nearly a 50% adopted clientele percentage. It does not address the increased rate in suicide we see in adoptees, although it is adoption is known to be a risk factor for suicide.