Behavioral adjustment of Chinese adoptees: The role of pre-adoption experiences

Purpose: In the current study we examined associations between children's pre-adoption experiences (type of pre-adoption care and early deprivation) and their adaptive and maladaptive behavioral adjustment. Associations with prosocial behavior, attention problems, internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems were investigated. Methods: Parental ratings of pre-adoption experiences and behavioral adjustment of 891 adopted Chinese girls aged between 4 and 12 year were obtained. The children were adopted from institutional care (n=595), foster care (n=66) or a combination of institutional and foster care (n=228). Prosocial behavior was assessed using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Attention problems, internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems were assessed using the Child Behavior Checklist for ages 4–18 (CBCL). In addition to the main effects of pre-adoption experiences, we tested interaction effects between pre-adoption experiences and age at adoption, controlling for several family and child background variables. Results: Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that type of pre-adoption care was not associated with behavioral adjustment. Early deprivation, on the other hand, was negatively associated with prosocial behavior, and positively associated with attention problems, internalizing and externalizing problems. Interaction analyses revealed no significant associations. Conclusions: The results showed that pre-adoption deprivation increased the risk for less optimal behavioral adjustment. The effects however were small, leaving room for other explaining factors both in the pre- and postadoption environment of the child.status: publishe