Australian and New Zealand .lournal of Psychiatry (1978) 12: 181
ADJUSTMENT OF ADOPTED CHILDREN AND DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE OF ADOPTIVE PARENTS * by J. KRAUS**
SYNOPSIS Using 51 manifestationso f childhood dysfunction as index of adjustment, the relationship was investigated of 9 demographic characteristics of applicants for adoption to the adjustment of children, when aged 7 to 7yz years, whom they had adopted. ‘Good adjustment’ was associated with the father having at least completed high school, having a non-manual occupation and an above median income. There was a trend for it to be also associated with the mother having at least completed high school, being under 30 years of age, and with the couple’s non-committal on 0.e.. not outright rejection of) the possibility of adopting a hard to place child. The findings were discussed critically and it was concluded that the study demonstrated the feasibility of establishing objective empirical criteria for the selection of adoption applicants.
The historical, psychological, research, and legal developments of recent years have shifted adoption placement practice from an applicant-centred to a childcentred approach (Reid, 1957; Phillips, 1965; Mackay, 1967). Some socially concerned organizations, however, d o not regard this shift as being radical enough. For example, the Standing Committee of the New South Wales Council of Social Service has recommended that the Adoption Act be amended so as to stress that “the interest of the child should be paramount and not priority on the register of approved adopting parents” (Hambly, 1976, p. 86). The natural extension of this recommendation was a proposition, presented to the First Australian Conference on Adoption in 1976, that “. . . the imbalance in the numberb of prospective adoptive parents and children and the inordinate waiting periods now being endured by approved adopters, justifies the exclusion of such classes of applicants as can reasonably be regarded as vulnerable to a higher risk of failure in adoption than those who lack their
distinctive characteristics” (ibid, p. 82). Although it has been pointed out in the past that, for the purpose of selection of suitable applicants, there is a need to investigate the relationship of the characteristics of adoptive couples at the time of placement to the adjustment of adopted children (Mech, 1965; McLelland, 1967), empirical hard data are still lacking. I t seems that the main efforts of research into the adjustment of adopted children have centred o n comparisons with natural children, and the utility of such research has been seriously questioned. I t has been stressed that “. . . whether or not a larger proportion of adopted than biological children are at risk psychologically, is a sterile, if not misleading question” (Pringle, 1967, p. 28), and that “.’. . for the practitioner it might be more profitable to develop knowledge about the various forms of adjustment shown by adoptive families, without confusing the issue by comparing them with another species of family that operates in a very different context” (Fanshel, 1962, p. 27); the relevant research should concern itself with internal comparisons among adoptive families of different types and structures, taking into consideration such variables as socio-economic and ethnic status, presence of own children in the family, age of parents, etc. (ibid). It was pointed out that in the selection of applicants for adoption “. , . adoption practice in general calls for far too many assessments of far too much attitudinal and inferential material”, and that what the practice needs is the identification of a few factors which could be used in the prediction of potential risk to adequate parenthood (Ripple, 1968, p. 497).
I t should be noted that the search for hard data predictors has met with a limited success. Reviews of adoption research seem t o agree that the weight of evidence shows the relevant personal and attitudinal qualities of adoptive parents to be far more important for adoption outcome than the demographic characteristics (i.e., hard data) of adoptive families, and that research findings concerning “Received 1 I April 1978 the latter tend to be conflicting (Pringle, 1967; Jacka, *“Senior Research Consultant, Department of Youth and 1973). I t appears that the above conclusions could be Community Services, Sydney, New South Wales Downloaded from anp.sagepub.com at Karolinska Institutets Universitetsbibliotek on July 11, 2015
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ADJUSTMENT OF ADOPTED CHILDREN
explained, at least in part, by the methodology of research: most studies assess the purported predictor and predicted variables during the follow-up, and in this sense are not ‘predictive’. When the various personality and attitude ratings are made, however, as they should be at the time of adoption placement, not only are they shown to have no predictive validity in respect of adoption outcome but also none in respect of identical ratings made at follow-up (Witmer et al, 1963). The latter evidence is consistent with the recognized low validity and reliability of measures of family functioning and similar variables (Crane, 1976). Validity and reliability apart, demographic hard data have also pragmatic advantages: the data are being collected routinely by adoption agencies. The collection does not require any specially qualified personnel. In the selection process, the use of such data is actuarial, which obviates the need for a routine clinical type assessment of all applicants. It should be noted that the superiority of actuarial to clinical prediction is firmly established in research literature (Sines, 1970). A further advantage of demographic data is their relevance to the Australian Adoption Acts, most of which specify such factors as age, education, and religion, among the indices of suitability of applicants but d o not provide the standards (with few exceptions, e.g., ‘age’ in N.S.W.), leaving the agencies to make their own eligibility rules (Hambly, 1976). It is obvious, therefore, that if the relevant standards can be established empirically they will complement the existing legislation on adoption. The purpose of the present study is to explore the feasibility of establishing such standards.
METHOD Sample Three hundred and forty-four couples were mailed a questionnaire concerning the health and behaviour of a child they had adopted between seven and seven-and-a-half years earlier. All these were adoptions by non-relatives where the child was placed within four weeks of birth, and were consecutive entries taken from an adoption register. The addresses of 81 (23.5%) couples were changed since adoption and the questionnaires returned unanswered. The effective sample comprised 210 (61%) couples who returned the completed questionnaire. Although the sample is self selected, it can be assumed that it is representative of the adoptive families for the year of adoption, because it was found to be so (Goodness-of-fit test) in respect of four known parameters of this population (religion, mother’s age, income, number of children). The data on the demographic characteristics of the adoptive families were obtained from the records of the Department of Youth and Community Services. The data on the adjustment of the adopted children when aged 7 to 7 f i years were obtained from their adoptive parents by means of a postal questionnaire.
the respondent. The items were selected from, or based on, parental questionnaires which have been used in studies of childhood adjustment (Cattell et al, 1957; Mech, 1963; Pringle et al, 1966; Lawder et al, 1969; Bohman, 1970; Richman et al, 1971, 1975) and psychiatric descriptions classified as problems of behaviour (Kanner, 1960). Space was provided on the questionnaire to list ‘any other aspects of the child’s behaviour’ which cause the parents concern. A covering letter was attached and a stamped addressed envelope provided for the return of the questionnaire. The items used are shown in Appendix I, except that they were used without headings (type of manifestation) and in a random and not a grouped order. It can be noted that the questionnaire method is regarded by experts as having advantages over the interview in collection of structured data (Young, 1966). and its superior validity and reliability have been confirmed by empirical studies (Maccoby, 1959; Fanshel, 1962). The reliability of responses of adoptive parents to the present questionnaire has been demonstrated in an earlier study (Kraus, 1975). For the purpose of analysis, the childhood behaviour problems (manifestations) were classified in terms of nine clinical ‘types’ (Appendix I), the quantification of which was determined ex postfacto by the frequency distribution of manifestations comprised by each type. For example, so few respondents reported more than one ‘other somatic’ manifestation that the only practicable quantification was “one o r more” (Table 2). The demographic characteristics of the adoptive parents prior to adoption which were the subject of the study were: income, length of marriage, religion, presence of own child(ren), father’s education, father’s occupation, mother’s education, and mother’s age. Additionally, answers were analyzed to a question on the application for adoption, regarding their interest in adopting a coloured or a handicapped child. The rationale for this inclusion was evidence indicating poorer adjustment prospects for adoptees in families where the motive for adoption was to fulfil a need of the parents rather than a desire to help and nurture a child (Mills, 1966).
ANALYSIS A N D FINDINGS The following controls were introduced for the purpose of analysis: All children were excluded whose biological mother was in a manual “unskilled” occupation (N = 52), because they have been shown to be “at risk” from birth and to be placed with adoptive parents matched on occupation with the biological mother (Kraus, 1977). All cases were excluded where the parents did not report at least one manifestation of dysfunction (N = 12), because the validity of their responses to the questionnaire appeared to be questionable. For the remainder of the sample (N- 146), 1st and 3rd Quartile cut-off points were calculated in the frequency distribution of the cotal numbers of manifestations shown by each child. Children in the 1st Quartile (N = 38) showing up to 3 manifestations were designated ‘good adjustment’. Children in the 4th Quartile (N = 38) showing 9 or more manifestations were designated ‘poor adjustment’. I t must
Procedure A questionnaire constructed for the collection of data on the adopted children comprised 51 items, describing childhood behaviour problems, followed by ‘Yes’and ‘No’ answers, the appropriate one to beDownloaded marked with a circle by from anp.sagepub.com at Karolinska Institutets Universitetsbibliotek on July 11, 2015
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TABLE 1 Demographic characteristics differentiating adoptive parents of children showing poor adjustment from parents of children showing good adjustment, shown as percentages. Demographic characteristics
m r ' s education
not completed high school (N=65) high school or better (N=ll) Father's occupation manual skill= unskilled (N=40) white collar, profession, etc. (N=36) Father's income below median (N=38) above median (N=38) Mother's education not completed high school (N=67) hinh school or better (N=9) Moder's age under 30 (N=24) 30 or older (N=52) Interest in a coloured child not interested (N=18) question not answered (N=58) **p g . 0 1 2 5
x"
Children showing poor adjustment
Children showing good adjustment
df= 1
55.4 18.2
44.6 81.8
** 5.209
62.5 36.1
37.5 63.9
** 5.278
63.2 36.8
36.8 63.2
** 5.263
53.7 22.2
46.3 77.8
*
2.017
31.5 55.8
62.5 44.2
*
2.192
66.7 44.8
33.3 55.2
*
2.069
* p g .10 (one tail)
TABLE 2 Percentages of adopted children aged 7-7%yean, with poor and good general adjustment, showing specific types of childhood dysfunction. Children showing poor adjustment (N=38)
Type of dysfunction and number of manifestations Gastrointestinal one manifestation two or more manifestations Other somatic manifestations one or more Habit disturbance one manifestation two or more manifestations Sleep disturbance one two or more Fears and phobias one two or more Eating problems one two Peer relations problems one two or more Behaviour problems one two or three four or more Mood disturbance one two or more Other manifestations of concern
-
one
two or more
*
significance of difference between proportions
Children showing good adjustment (N=38)
P&* (one tail) .0125
28.9 13.2
7.9 0 .o
34.2
10.5
52.6 10.5
23.7 0.0
31.6 21.1
23.7 0.0
NS .0025
28.9 36.8
28.9 5.3
NS .0025
23.7 28.9
10.5 0.0
.10 .0005
13.2 4 7.4
5.3 0.0
2.6 34.2 63.2
4 1.4 13.2 0.0
.0005 .025 .0005
39.5 34.2
10.5
.0025
2.6
.0005
15.8 21.1
2.6 0.0
.05 .005
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.o 125 .o 1 .o 1 .025
NS
.0005
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ADJUSTMENT OF A D O P T E D C H I L D R E N
be pointed out that a number of studies have demonstrated the validity of the used here operational definition of children’s general adjustment, in terms of numbers of undifferentiated symptoms (Lapouse et al, 1958; Wolff, 1967; Werry et al, 1971; Herjanic et al, 1977). Only these two groups showing extreme adjustments were used in the analysis, in order to increase its sensitivity by maximizing contrasts. The relationship of parental characteristics to adjustment was tested using Chi-square. Where a characteristic had an inherent classification, this was used in analysis (e.g., education). Where no classification was available, dichotomy at the median was used (e.g., income). Yates’ correction was used in 2 x 2 tables where an expected cell frequency was less than 5 (Wert et al, 1954). Where the direction of the relationship between variables was predicted on theoretical or empirical grounds, one tail statistical significance was accepted (e.g., education and adjustment), where it was not, two tail significance was used (e.g., religion and adjustment).
Parental characteristics and adjustment For economy of space, only statistically significant and near significant findings are presented here. Table 1 shows that, in order of importance, the father’s occupation, income and education, have a highly significant relationship to the adoptive child’s general adjustment. In view of the intercorrelation of these characteristics being a sociological truism, it would be legitimate to deduce that, in the context of the present study, the father’s socioeconomic status is the crucial determinant of the child’s adjustment. Of the remaining three variables in Table 1, which show only a trend towards being significantly related to adjustment, mother’s education is obviously not independent from father’s education (i.e., selective mating) and must therefore be interpreted with caution. The relationship of mother’s younger age to good adjustment is, however, quite unambiguous, as is the relationship of lack of interest in a coloured (or handicapped) child to poor adjustment. It is worth noting that the interpretation of the percentages can be extended. For example, noncompletion of high school by the father is of much lesser importance for poor adjustment than its completion is for good adjustment; exactly the same can be said about mother’s age being 30 or older, and under 30, respectively; also, while lack of interest in a coloured child doubles the chances of poor adjustment, failure to answer the relevant question does not portend good adjustment (N.B., only 4 out of 210 respondents answered the question in the affirmative).
Type of dysfunction and adjustment
with 74 degrees of freedom (Cochran, 1953). The findings are shown in Table 2. Only the proportions showing single manifestations of sleep disturbance, fears and phobias, eating problems, peer relations problems, and of behaviour problems, are not significantly greater in the poor adjustment than the good adjustment group. In fact, the proportion manifesting a single behaviour problem is greater in the good adjustment group, however, in the poor adjustment group over 97% show at least two such problems; the most striking difference between the groups is also in this area, where 63.2% of the poor adjustment children but 0.0% of the good adjustment group show four or more manifestations of dysfunction. There is also a striking difference in the area of peer relations, where the proportions manifesting two or more problems are 47.4% and O.O%, respectively. Overall, the findings indicate that poor and good adjustments are not differentiated by any specific types of dysfunction, but rather by the intensity (i.e., number) of manifestations of all types. The likelihood of occurrence of the specific manifestations within each type of dysfunction is shown in Appendix 1. It is obvious that only the more frequent manifestations are likely to be evident in the good adjustment group, while the poorly adjusted children are likely to show also the manifestations which are infrequent or rare.
DISCUSSION Conditional on the acceptance of the negative operational definition of ‘good adjustment’ used in this study, as the absence of manifest dysfunctions, the present findings indicate the demographic profile of applicants for adoption with whom the adopted child has the best chance for making a good adjustment. Both partners, but the prospective father in particular, have completed high school and probably extended their education even further. The prospective father is in a non-manual occupation (white collar, semi-or professional, business, farmer, etc.) and his income is above the median income of applicants for adoption as a group. The prospective mother is under 30 years of age and (relative to the typical waiting period for the sample in this study) not over 31 at the time of the child’s adoptive placement. While not necessarily expressing an active interest in adopting a coloured or a handicapped child, they have nevertheless not rejected such a possibility outright. I t must be stressed that the demographic characteristics per se have no intrinsic significance for the prognosis of a good adjustment. They are important only as indexes of attitudes, practices, values, emotions, and abilities, relevant to child rearing, and their predictive validity therefore might be largely contingent on their wider sociocultural context. Consequently, differences between these wider contexts could possibly explain in part any differences between the present findings and those of similar studies conducted it1 the Scandinavian countries, the U . S . , or even in England. While many studies found the socio-economic status of the adoptive parents of little or no relevance to the child’s adjustment (Jacka, 1973), in other studies a higher educational and social standing was
I t is obviously important, from both the preventive and remedial points of view, not only to identify situations which place the adoptive children at risk psychologically, but also “. . . to know about the kind of risk (involved)” (Pringle. 1967, p. 28). To this end, the proportions of children were compared, showing various types of dysfunction, in the two adjustment groups. Because of the small size of the samples, the significance of the differences t distribution between proportions was assessedDownloaded using from theanp.sagepub.com at Karolinska Institutets Universitetsbibliotek on July 11, 2015
J. KRAUS
I85
shown to have unfavorable connotations (Ripple, 1968; Jaffee et al, 1970; Seglow et al, 1972). The latter seems particularly surprising, because the findings invert a clearly demonstrated relationship between the socio-economic status of parents and the adjustment of their natural children (Pringle et al, 1966). This discrepancy could be interpreted as due to more frequent errors of judgement (by practitioners and researchers) about better educated and more articulate parents (Ripple, 1968). and to the fact that higher socio-economic status, known to have higher referral rate to psychiatric services (Pringle, 1967), is also likely to be associated with higher awareness and reporting of psychological and behavioural dysfunctions. Such explanation is consistent with research data which “. . . suggest that social class position is inversely related to the capacity of couples to accept deviations from normal in adoptive children. Professional and white-collar families are less able to d o so than are blue-collar families” (Mech, 1965, p. 9). If this explanation is tenable in the Australian socio-cultural context, it strongly supports the validity of the present findings, because they were obtained in spite of the bias against them inherent in the reporting by adoptive parents.
REFERENCES
Regarding the mother’s age, few studies found it to be related to adjustment, and among those that did some reported a more favorable prognosis with younger mothers (McWhinnie, 1967; Kadushin et al, 1970), other with older ones (Ripple, 1968; Kornitzer, 1971). The present findings, consistent with the former reports, give empirical support to the recent amendment to Regulations made under the Adoption of Children’s Act (N.S.W., 1965), which gives preference to younger applicants for adoption.
Fanshel, D. (1962). Approaches to measuring adjustment in adoptive parents, in Quantitative Approaches ro Parent Selection. Child Welfare League of America, New York.
The finding that rejection of the possibiiity to adopt a coloured or a handicapped child portends poor adjustment is consistent with niotivational factors mentioned earlier, with a clinical observation that rigid specifications about the child the applicants desire indicate a potential rejection of the child they eventually adopt (Bull, 1967), and evidence indicating that absence of even such basic preference as the child’s sex offers the adoptee best adjustment prospects (Brenner, 1951). In conclusion, the present study has demonstrated the feasibility of establishing objective empirical criteria for the selection of adoption applicants. The criteria could replace, or be used in conjunction with, the subjective, inferential and predictively not valid assessments of such esoteric factors as “. . . personal adjustment . . . deeper motives . . . ability to accept an adopted child . . . (and) nature of their personalities”, stressed as being “of great importance” by some workers in this field (Mackay, 1967, p. 10). Other objections apart, these assessments impress as being a long term task for a team of analytically or like minded personality experts, and not a task for an adoption worker giving her clients a limited number of interviews.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Bohman, M. (1970). Adopted Children a n d Their Families. Proprius, Stockholm. Brenner, R. F. (1951). A Follow-Up Study of Adoptive Families. Child Adoption Research Committee Inc., New York. Bull, M. (1967). About adoption. Australian Journal o f Social Work, 20: 2. Cattell, R. B. and Coan, R. W. (1957). Personality factors in middle childhood as revealed in parents’ ratings. Child Development, 28: 439. Cochran, W. G. (1953). Sampling Techniques. Wiley & Sons, New York. Crane, J. A. (1976). The power of social intervention experiments to discriminate differences between experimental and control groups. Social Services Review, 50: 224.
Hambly, D. (1976). Balancing the interests of the child, parents and adopters: a review of Australian adoption law. Proceedings o f First Australian Conference on Adoption, 15/20 February 1976. University of New South Wales, Sydney. Herjanic, B. and Campbell, W. (1977). Differentiating psychiatrically disturbed children on the basis of a structured interview. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 5: 127. Jacka, A. A. (1973). Adoption in Brief. National Children’s Bureau, London. Jaffee, B, and Fanshel, D. (1970). H o w They Fared in Adoption: A Follow-Up Study. Columbia University Press, New York. Kadushin, A, and Seidl, F. W. (1970). Adoption Failure A Social Work Post-Mortem. (Abstract - unpublished manuscript.) Kanner, L. (1960). Child Psychiatry. Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, 111. Kornitzer, M. (1971). The adopted adolescent and the sense of identity. Child Adoption, 66: 43. Kraus, J. (1975). Effect of anonymity on responses of adoptive parents to a child-problems questionnaire. Australian Social Work, 28: 37.
Kraus, J. (1977). Adjustment of adopted children: prognosis from maternal and natal ‘risk’ factors. Journal of Child Psychology a n d Psychiatry(pub1ication pending). Downloaded from anp.sagepub.com at Karolinska Institutets Universitetsbibliotek on July 11, 2015
Thanks are given to Mr. W . C . Langshaw, Director of the Department of Youth and Community Services, for his kind perniission to publish this study.
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ADOPTED CHILDREN
Lapouse, R. and Monk, M. A. (1958). An epidemiological study of behaviour characteristics in children. American Journal o f Public Health. 48: 1134.
Reid, J. H. (1957). Principles, values and assumptions underlying adoption practice. Social Work, 2:22.
Lawder, E. A., Lower, K. D., Andrews, R. G., Sherman E. A. and Hill, J. G. (1969). A Follow-Up Study o f Adoptions: Post-Placement Functioning o f Adoption Families. Child Welfare League of America, New York.
Richman, N. and Graham, P. J . (1971). A behaviour screening questionnaire for use with three-year-old children: preliminary findings. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 12: 5 .
Maccoby, E. E. (1959). The interview: a tool of social science, in Handbook o f Social Psychology (Ed. Lindzey, G . ) Addison-Wesley, Reading.
Richman, N., Stevenson, J. E. and Graham, P. J. (1975). Prevalence of behaviour problems in three-year-old children: an epidemiological study in a London borough. Journal o f Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 16: 277.
Mackay, N. (1967). The social workers responsibility: the adoptive parents. Australian Journal o f Social Work, 20: 2. McLelland, M. (1967). Social work and adoption, in Adoption Services in New South Wales: Proceedings o f a Seminar. Department of Child Welfare and Social Welfare, Sydney. McWhinnie, A. M. (1967). Adopted Children: How They Grow U p . Routledge & Kegan Paul, London. Mech, E. V. (1963). Post Placement Functioning in A d o p t i v e Families: A Questionnaire Survey. Mimeograph - Graduate Department of Social Work and Social Research, Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr (Abstract) Mech, E. V. (1965). Trends in adoption research, in Perspectives on Adoption Research. Child Welfare League of America, New York. Mills, R . (1966). Disabled adopted girls. Child Care, 20: 46. Phillips, E. (1965). The Victorian Adoption of Children Act 1964. Australian JournalofSocial Work, 18: 6.
Ripple, L. (1968). A follow-up study of adopted children. Social Services Review. 42: 479. Seglow, J., Kellmer, Pringle, M. and Wedge, P. (1972). Growing U p Adopted. National Foundation for Educational Research in England and Wales, Windsor, Berks. Sines, J. 0. (1970). Actuarial versus clinical prediction in psychopathology. British Journal o f Psychiatry, 116: 129. Werry, J. S. and Quay, H. C. (1971). The prevalence of behaviour symptoms in younger elementary school children. American Journal o f Orthopsychiatry, 41: 136. Wert, J. E., Neidt, C. 0. and Ahman, J . S. (1954). Statistical Methods in Educational and Psychological Research. Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York. Witmer, H. L., Herzog, E., Weinstein, E. A. and Sullivan, M . E. (1963). Independent Adoptions: A Follow-Up Study. Russell-Sage Foundation, New York.
Pringle, M. L. Kellmer (1967). Adoption: Facts and Fallacies. Longmans, London.
Wolff, S. (1967). Behavioural characteristics of primary school children referred to a psychiatric department. British Journal o f Psychiatry, 113: 885.
Pringle, M. L. Kellmer, Butler, N. R. and Davie, R. (1966). l1,ooO Seven-Year-Olds. Longmans, London.
Young, P. V. (1966). Scientific Social Surveys and Re.search. Prentice-Hall. Englewood Cliffs.
Reprint requests t 0: Dr. J . Kraus Senior Research Consultant Department of Youth Kr Community Services Box K718, P.O. Haymarket NSW 2000
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APPENDIX 1 Types and contents of manifestations of childhood dysfunction and percentages of adopted children showing these manifestations, when 7 years of age.
Girls
Total
(N=103)
(N=107)
(N=210)
3.6 1.9 6.8 4.9
20.6 0.9 8.4 5.6
17.2 1.4 7.6 5.2
0.7 4.9 9.7 2.9
11.2 3.7 9.3 5.6
11.0 4.3 9.5 4.3
1.0 1.0 28.2 5.8 0.0 ~7.8
1 .o
2.8 0.0 23.4 3.7 1.9 8.4 3.7
1.9 0.5 25.7 4.8 1 .o 8.1 2.4
15.5 14.6 25.2 9.7
11.2 13.1 20.6 6.5
13.3 13.8 22.9 8.1
22.3 4.9 2.9 18.4 32.0
15.0 10.3 8.4 18.7 16.8
18.6 7.6 5.7 18.6 24.3
10.7 28.2 5.8
15.9 24.3 5.6
13.3 26.2 5.7
17.5 14.6 12.6 9.7 20.4 7.8
12.2 8.4 6.5 5.6 12.2 3.7
14.8 11.4 9.5 7.6 16.2 5.7
23.3 11.7 9.7 20.4. 34.0 23.3 12.6 24.3 58.3 18.4 12.6 36.9
19.6 3.7 2.8 17.8 15.0 24.3 3.7 15.9 45.8 20.6 11.2 25.2
21.4 7.6 6.2 19.1 24.3 23.8 8.1 20.0 51.9 19.5 11.9 31.0
6.8 22.3 13.6 20.4 1 .o 7.8
13.1 19.6 7.5 17.8 3.7 6.5
10.0 21.0 10.5 19.1 2.4 7.2
37.9 33.0 16.5 7.8
47.7 21.5 13.1 7.5
42.8 27.3 14.8 7.7
Boys
Type and content of manifestations Gastrointestinal complains of tummy aches has often diarrhoea is often constipated has periodic vomiting- or bilious attacks Qther sbmatic complains of headaches has attacks of asthma gets eczema or skin eruptions has a squint or suspected squint Habit disturbance has twitches or mannerisms of the face, eyes or body has a stammer bites nails sucks thumb or finger during day wets self during day time wets bed at night time poor bowel control, soils pants by day Sleep disturbance has difficulty in getting off to sleep has bad dreams or night terror restless in sleep, tosses and turns has sleepwalked on a few occasions Fears and phobias is afraid of the dark when in bed at night generally fearful of unfamiliar people very much afraid of one or more animals easily upset by new situations or things happening for the first time worries about many things Eating problems has a poor aupetite is faddy, r e h i e to eat or dislikes many foods overeats for more than the occasional meal Peer relations quarrels a lot with olher children prefers doing things (playing, etc.) alone, rather than with others is bullied by other children dislikes going to school fghts with other children is timid, shy or fearful of other children Behaviour problems has difficulty in settling to anything for longer than a few minutes purposely destroys or breaks things has stolen things on several occasions quite often tells deliberate untruth is disobedient at home tends to be very jealous wanders off from home without permission misbehates to attract attention of adults often resists when asked or told to do something complains and whines a lot has temper and screaming tantrums is squirmy or fidgety, cannot sit still Mood disturbance is often miserable or tearful is irritable, quick to tly off the handle is very quiet and daydreams a lot has very changeable moods sulks for hours on end is very placid, shows virtually no emotions Total manifestatiom
-
--
--
1-5 6 - 10 1 1 - 15 16 +
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ADJUSTMENT OF ADOPTED CHILDREN AND DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE OF ADOPTIVE PARENTS * by J. KRAUS**
SYNOPSIS Using 51 manifestationso f childhood dysfunction as index of adjustment, the relationship was investigated of 9 demographic characteristics of applicants for adoption to the adjustment of children, when aged 7 to 7yz years, whom they had adopted. ‘Good adjustment’ was associated with the father having at least completed high school, having a non-manual occupation and an above median income. There was a trend for it to be also associated with the mother having at least completed high school, being under 30 years of age, and with the couple’s non-committal on 0.e.. not outright rejection of) the possibility of adopting a hard to place child. The findings were discussed critically and it was concluded that the study demonstrated the feasibility of establishing objective empirical criteria for the selection of adoption applicants.
The historical, psychological, research, and legal developments of recent years have shifted adoption placement practice from an applicant-centred to a childcentred approach (Reid, 1957; Phillips, 1965; Mackay, 1967). Some socially concerned organizations, however, d o not regard this shift as being radical enough. For example, the Standing Committee of the New South Wales Council of Social Service has recommended that the Adoption Act be amended so as to stress that “the interest of the child should be paramount and not priority on the register of approved adopting parents” (Hambly, 1976, p. 86). The natural extension of this recommendation was a proposition, presented to the First Australian Conference on Adoption in 1976, that “. . . the imbalance in the numberb of prospective adoptive parents and children and the inordinate waiting periods now being endured by approved adopters, justifies the exclusion of such classes of applicants as can reasonably be regarded as vulnerable to a higher risk of failure in adoption than those who lack their
distinctive characteristics” (ibid, p. 82). Although it has been pointed out in the past that, for the purpose of selection of suitable applicants, there is a need to investigate the relationship of the characteristics of adoptive couples at the time of placement to the adjustment of adopted children (Mech, 1965; McLelland, 1967), empirical hard data are still lacking. I t seems that the main efforts of research into the adjustment of adopted children have centred o n comparisons with natural children, and the utility of such research has been seriously questioned. I t has been stressed that “. . . whether or not a larger proportion of adopted than biological children are at risk psychologically, is a sterile, if not misleading question” (Pringle, 1967, p. 28), and that “.’. . for the practitioner it might be more profitable to develop knowledge about the various forms of adjustment shown by adoptive families, without confusing the issue by comparing them with another species of family that operates in a very different context” (Fanshel, 1962, p. 27); the relevant research should concern itself with internal comparisons among adoptive families of different types and structures, taking into consideration such variables as socio-economic and ethnic status, presence of own children in the family, age of parents, etc. (ibid). It was pointed out that in the selection of applicants for adoption “. , . adoption practice in general calls for far too many assessments of far too much attitudinal and inferential material”, and that what the practice needs is the identification of a few factors which could be used in the prediction of potential risk to adequate parenthood (Ripple, 1968, p. 497).
I t should be noted that the search for hard data predictors has met with a limited success. Reviews of adoption research seem t o agree that the weight of evidence shows the relevant personal and attitudinal qualities of adoptive parents to be far more important for adoption outcome than the demographic characteristics (i.e., hard data) of adoptive families, and that research findings concerning “Received 1 I April 1978 the latter tend to be conflicting (Pringle, 1967; Jacka, *“Senior Research Consultant, Department of Youth and 1973). I t appears that the above conclusions could be Community Services, Sydney, New South Wales Downloaded from anp.sagepub.com at Karolinska Institutets Universitetsbibliotek on July 11, 2015
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explained, at least in part, by the methodology of research: most studies assess the purported predictor and predicted variables during the follow-up, and in this sense are not ‘predictive’. When the various personality and attitude ratings are made, however, as they should be at the time of adoption placement, not only are they shown to have no predictive validity in respect of adoption outcome but also none in respect of identical ratings made at follow-up (Witmer et al, 1963). The latter evidence is consistent with the recognized low validity and reliability of measures of family functioning and similar variables (Crane, 1976). Validity and reliability apart, demographic hard data have also pragmatic advantages: the data are being collected routinely by adoption agencies. The collection does not require any specially qualified personnel. In the selection process, the use of such data is actuarial, which obviates the need for a routine clinical type assessment of all applicants. It should be noted that the superiority of actuarial to clinical prediction is firmly established in research literature (Sines, 1970). A further advantage of demographic data is their relevance to the Australian Adoption Acts, most of which specify such factors as age, education, and religion, among the indices of suitability of applicants but d o not provide the standards (with few exceptions, e.g., ‘age’ in N.S.W.), leaving the agencies to make their own eligibility rules (Hambly, 1976). It is obvious, therefore, that if the relevant standards can be established empirically they will complement the existing legislation on adoption. The purpose of the present study is to explore the feasibility of establishing such standards.
METHOD Sample Three hundred and forty-four couples were mailed a questionnaire concerning the health and behaviour of a child they had adopted between seven and seven-and-a-half years earlier. All these were adoptions by non-relatives where the child was placed within four weeks of birth, and were consecutive entries taken from an adoption register. The addresses of 81 (23.5%) couples were changed since adoption and the questionnaires returned unanswered. The effective sample comprised 210 (61%) couples who returned the completed questionnaire. Although the sample is self selected, it can be assumed that it is representative of the adoptive families for the year of adoption, because it was found to be so (Goodness-of-fit test) in respect of four known parameters of this population (religion, mother’s age, income, number of children). The data on the demographic characteristics of the adoptive families were obtained from the records of the Department of Youth and Community Services. The data on the adjustment of the adopted children when aged 7 to 7 f i years were obtained from their adoptive parents by means of a postal questionnaire.
the respondent. The items were selected from, or based on, parental questionnaires which have been used in studies of childhood adjustment (Cattell et al, 1957; Mech, 1963; Pringle et al, 1966; Lawder et al, 1969; Bohman, 1970; Richman et al, 1971, 1975) and psychiatric descriptions classified as problems of behaviour (Kanner, 1960). Space was provided on the questionnaire to list ‘any other aspects of the child’s behaviour’ which cause the parents concern. A covering letter was attached and a stamped addressed envelope provided for the return of the questionnaire. The items used are shown in Appendix I, except that they were used without headings (type of manifestation) and in a random and not a grouped order. It can be noted that the questionnaire method is regarded by experts as having advantages over the interview in collection of structured data (Young, 1966). and its superior validity and reliability have been confirmed by empirical studies (Maccoby, 1959; Fanshel, 1962). The reliability of responses of adoptive parents to the present questionnaire has been demonstrated in an earlier study (Kraus, 1975). For the purpose of analysis, the childhood behaviour problems (manifestations) were classified in terms of nine clinical ‘types’ (Appendix I), the quantification of which was determined ex postfacto by the frequency distribution of manifestations comprised by each type. For example, so few respondents reported more than one ‘other somatic’ manifestation that the only practicable quantification was “one o r more” (Table 2). The demographic characteristics of the adoptive parents prior to adoption which were the subject of the study were: income, length of marriage, religion, presence of own child(ren), father’s education, father’s occupation, mother’s education, and mother’s age. Additionally, answers were analyzed to a question on the application for adoption, regarding their interest in adopting a coloured or a handicapped child. The rationale for this inclusion was evidence indicating poorer adjustment prospects for adoptees in families where the motive for adoption was to fulfil a need of the parents rather than a desire to help and nurture a child (Mills, 1966).
ANALYSIS A N D FINDINGS The following controls were introduced for the purpose of analysis: All children were excluded whose biological mother was in a manual “unskilled” occupation (N = 52), because they have been shown to be “at risk” from birth and to be placed with adoptive parents matched on occupation with the biological mother (Kraus, 1977). All cases were excluded where the parents did not report at least one manifestation of dysfunction (N = 12), because the validity of their responses to the questionnaire appeared to be questionable. For the remainder of the sample (N- 146), 1st and 3rd Quartile cut-off points were calculated in the frequency distribution of the cotal numbers of manifestations shown by each child. Children in the 1st Quartile (N = 38) showing up to 3 manifestations were designated ‘good adjustment’. Children in the 4th Quartile (N = 38) showing 9 or more manifestations were designated ‘poor adjustment’. I t must
Procedure A questionnaire constructed for the collection of data on the adopted children comprised 51 items, describing childhood behaviour problems, followed by ‘Yes’and ‘No’ answers, the appropriate one to beDownloaded marked with a circle by from anp.sagepub.com at Karolinska Institutets Universitetsbibliotek on July 11, 2015
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TABLE 1 Demographic characteristics differentiating adoptive parents of children showing poor adjustment from parents of children showing good adjustment, shown as percentages. Demographic characteristics
m r ' s education
not completed high school (N=65) high school or better (N=ll) Father's occupation manual skill= unskilled (N=40) white collar, profession, etc. (N=36) Father's income below median (N=38) above median (N=38) Mother's education not completed high school (N=67) hinh school or better (N=9) Moder's age under 30 (N=24) 30 or older (N=52) Interest in a coloured child not interested (N=18) question not answered (N=58) **p g . 0 1 2 5
x"
Children showing poor adjustment
Children showing good adjustment
df= 1
55.4 18.2
44.6 81.8
** 5.209
62.5 36.1
37.5 63.9
** 5.278
63.2 36.8
36.8 63.2
** 5.263
53.7 22.2
46.3 77.8
*
2.017
31.5 55.8
62.5 44.2
*
2.192
66.7 44.8
33.3 55.2
*
2.069
* p g .10 (one tail)
TABLE 2 Percentages of adopted children aged 7-7%yean, with poor and good general adjustment, showing specific types of childhood dysfunction. Children showing poor adjustment (N=38)
Type of dysfunction and number of manifestations Gastrointestinal one manifestation two or more manifestations Other somatic manifestations one or more Habit disturbance one manifestation two or more manifestations Sleep disturbance one two or more Fears and phobias one two or more Eating problems one two Peer relations problems one two or more Behaviour problems one two or three four or more Mood disturbance one two or more Other manifestations of concern
-
one
two or more
*
significance of difference between proportions
Children showing good adjustment (N=38)
P&* (one tail) .0125
28.9 13.2
7.9 0 .o
34.2
10.5
52.6 10.5
23.7 0.0
31.6 21.1
23.7 0.0
NS .0025
28.9 36.8
28.9 5.3
NS .0025
23.7 28.9
10.5 0.0
.10 .0005
13.2 4 7.4
5.3 0.0
2.6 34.2 63.2
4 1.4 13.2 0.0
.0005 .025 .0005
39.5 34.2
10.5
.0025
2.6
.0005
15.8 21.1
2.6 0.0
.05 .005
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.o 125 .o 1 .o 1 .025
NS
.0005
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ADJUSTMENT OF A D O P T E D C H I L D R E N
be pointed out that a number of studies have demonstrated the validity of the used here operational definition of children’s general adjustment, in terms of numbers of undifferentiated symptoms (Lapouse et al, 1958; Wolff, 1967; Werry et al, 1971; Herjanic et al, 1977). Only these two groups showing extreme adjustments were used in the analysis, in order to increase its sensitivity by maximizing contrasts. The relationship of parental characteristics to adjustment was tested using Chi-square. Where a characteristic had an inherent classification, this was used in analysis (e.g., education). Where no classification was available, dichotomy at the median was used (e.g., income). Yates’ correction was used in 2 x 2 tables where an expected cell frequency was less than 5 (Wert et al, 1954). Where the direction of the relationship between variables was predicted on theoretical or empirical grounds, one tail statistical significance was accepted (e.g., education and adjustment), where it was not, two tail significance was used (e.g., religion and adjustment).
Parental characteristics and adjustment For economy of space, only statistically significant and near significant findings are presented here. Table 1 shows that, in order of importance, the father’s occupation, income and education, have a highly significant relationship to the adoptive child’s general adjustment. In view of the intercorrelation of these characteristics being a sociological truism, it would be legitimate to deduce that, in the context of the present study, the father’s socioeconomic status is the crucial determinant of the child’s adjustment. Of the remaining three variables in Table 1, which show only a trend towards being significantly related to adjustment, mother’s education is obviously not independent from father’s education (i.e., selective mating) and must therefore be interpreted with caution. The relationship of mother’s younger age to good adjustment is, however, quite unambiguous, as is the relationship of lack of interest in a coloured (or handicapped) child to poor adjustment. It is worth noting that the interpretation of the percentages can be extended. For example, noncompletion of high school by the father is of much lesser importance for poor adjustment than its completion is for good adjustment; exactly the same can be said about mother’s age being 30 or older, and under 30, respectively; also, while lack of interest in a coloured child doubles the chances of poor adjustment, failure to answer the relevant question does not portend good adjustment (N.B., only 4 out of 210 respondents answered the question in the affirmative).
Type of dysfunction and adjustment
with 74 degrees of freedom (Cochran, 1953). The findings are shown in Table 2. Only the proportions showing single manifestations of sleep disturbance, fears and phobias, eating problems, peer relations problems, and of behaviour problems, are not significantly greater in the poor adjustment than the good adjustment group. In fact, the proportion manifesting a single behaviour problem is greater in the good adjustment group, however, in the poor adjustment group over 97% show at least two such problems; the most striking difference between the groups is also in this area, where 63.2% of the poor adjustment children but 0.0% of the good adjustment group show four or more manifestations of dysfunction. There is also a striking difference in the area of peer relations, where the proportions manifesting two or more problems are 47.4% and O.O%, respectively. Overall, the findings indicate that poor and good adjustments are not differentiated by any specific types of dysfunction, but rather by the intensity (i.e., number) of manifestations of all types. The likelihood of occurrence of the specific manifestations within each type of dysfunction is shown in Appendix 1. It is obvious that only the more frequent manifestations are likely to be evident in the good adjustment group, while the poorly adjusted children are likely to show also the manifestations which are infrequent or rare.
DISCUSSION Conditional on the acceptance of the negative operational definition of ‘good adjustment’ used in this study, as the absence of manifest dysfunctions, the present findings indicate the demographic profile of applicants for adoption with whom the adopted child has the best chance for making a good adjustment. Both partners, but the prospective father in particular, have completed high school and probably extended their education even further. The prospective father is in a non-manual occupation (white collar, semi-or professional, business, farmer, etc.) and his income is above the median income of applicants for adoption as a group. The prospective mother is under 30 years of age and (relative to the typical waiting period for the sample in this study) not over 31 at the time of the child’s adoptive placement. While not necessarily expressing an active interest in adopting a coloured or a handicapped child, they have nevertheless not rejected such a possibility outright. I t must be stressed that the demographic characteristics per se have no intrinsic significance for the prognosis of a good adjustment. They are important only as indexes of attitudes, practices, values, emotions, and abilities, relevant to child rearing, and their predictive validity therefore might be largely contingent on their wider sociocultural context. Consequently, differences between these wider contexts could possibly explain in part any differences between the present findings and those of similar studies conducted it1 the Scandinavian countries, the U . S . , or even in England. While many studies found the socio-economic status of the adoptive parents of little or no relevance to the child’s adjustment (Jacka, 1973), in other studies a higher educational and social standing was
I t is obviously important, from both the preventive and remedial points of view, not only to identify situations which place the adoptive children at risk psychologically, but also “. . . to know about the kind of risk (involved)” (Pringle. 1967, p. 28). To this end, the proportions of children were compared, showing various types of dysfunction, in the two adjustment groups. Because of the small size of the samples, the significance of the differences t distribution between proportions was assessedDownloaded using from theanp.sagepub.com at Karolinska Institutets Universitetsbibliotek on July 11, 2015
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shown to have unfavorable connotations (Ripple, 1968; Jaffee et al, 1970; Seglow et al, 1972). The latter seems particularly surprising, because the findings invert a clearly demonstrated relationship between the socio-economic status of parents and the adjustment of their natural children (Pringle et al, 1966). This discrepancy could be interpreted as due to more frequent errors of judgement (by practitioners and researchers) about better educated and more articulate parents (Ripple, 1968). and to the fact that higher socio-economic status, known to have higher referral rate to psychiatric services (Pringle, 1967), is also likely to be associated with higher awareness and reporting of psychological and behavioural dysfunctions. Such explanation is consistent with research data which “. . . suggest that social class position is inversely related to the capacity of couples to accept deviations from normal in adoptive children. Professional and white-collar families are less able to d o so than are blue-collar families” (Mech, 1965, p. 9). If this explanation is tenable in the Australian socio-cultural context, it strongly supports the validity of the present findings, because they were obtained in spite of the bias against them inherent in the reporting by adoptive parents.
REFERENCES
Regarding the mother’s age, few studies found it to be related to adjustment, and among those that did some reported a more favorable prognosis with younger mothers (McWhinnie, 1967; Kadushin et al, 1970), other with older ones (Ripple, 1968; Kornitzer, 1971). The present findings, consistent with the former reports, give empirical support to the recent amendment to Regulations made under the Adoption of Children’s Act (N.S.W., 1965), which gives preference to younger applicants for adoption.
Fanshel, D. (1962). Approaches to measuring adjustment in adoptive parents, in Quantitative Approaches ro Parent Selection. Child Welfare League of America, New York.
The finding that rejection of the possibiiity to adopt a coloured or a handicapped child portends poor adjustment is consistent with niotivational factors mentioned earlier, with a clinical observation that rigid specifications about the child the applicants desire indicate a potential rejection of the child they eventually adopt (Bull, 1967), and evidence indicating that absence of even such basic preference as the child’s sex offers the adoptee best adjustment prospects (Brenner, 1951). In conclusion, the present study has demonstrated the feasibility of establishing objective empirical criteria for the selection of adoption applicants. The criteria could replace, or be used in conjunction with, the subjective, inferential and predictively not valid assessments of such esoteric factors as “. . . personal adjustment . . . deeper motives . . . ability to accept an adopted child . . . (and) nature of their personalities”, stressed as being “of great importance” by some workers in this field (Mackay, 1967, p. 10). Other objections apart, these assessments impress as being a long term task for a team of analytically or like minded personality experts, and not a task for an adoption worker giving her clients a limited number of interviews.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Bohman, M. (1970). Adopted Children a n d Their Families. Proprius, Stockholm. Brenner, R. F. (1951). A Follow-Up Study of Adoptive Families. Child Adoption Research Committee Inc., New York. Bull, M. (1967). About adoption. Australian Journal o f Social Work, 20: 2. Cattell, R. B. and Coan, R. W. (1957). Personality factors in middle childhood as revealed in parents’ ratings. Child Development, 28: 439. Cochran, W. G. (1953). Sampling Techniques. Wiley & Sons, New York. Crane, J. A. (1976). The power of social intervention experiments to discriminate differences between experimental and control groups. Social Services Review, 50: 224.
Hambly, D. (1976). Balancing the interests of the child, parents and adopters: a review of Australian adoption law. Proceedings o f First Australian Conference on Adoption, 15/20 February 1976. University of New South Wales, Sydney. Herjanic, B. and Campbell, W. (1977). Differentiating psychiatrically disturbed children on the basis of a structured interview. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 5: 127. Jacka, A. A. (1973). Adoption in Brief. National Children’s Bureau, London. Jaffee, B, and Fanshel, D. (1970). H o w They Fared in Adoption: A Follow-Up Study. Columbia University Press, New York. Kadushin, A, and Seidl, F. W. (1970). Adoption Failure A Social Work Post-Mortem. (Abstract - unpublished manuscript.) Kanner, L. (1960). Child Psychiatry. Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, 111. Kornitzer, M. (1971). The adopted adolescent and the sense of identity. Child Adoption, 66: 43. Kraus, J. (1975). Effect of anonymity on responses of adoptive parents to a child-problems questionnaire. Australian Social Work, 28: 37.
Kraus, J. (1977). Adjustment of adopted children: prognosis from maternal and natal ‘risk’ factors. Journal of Child Psychology a n d Psychiatry(pub1ication pending). Downloaded from anp.sagepub.com at Karolinska Institutets Universitetsbibliotek on July 11, 2015
Thanks are given to Mr. W . C . Langshaw, Director of the Department of Youth and Community Services, for his kind perniission to publish this study.
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ADOPTED CHILDREN
Lapouse, R. and Monk, M. A. (1958). An epidemiological study of behaviour characteristics in children. American Journal o f Public Health. 48: 1134.
Reid, J. H. (1957). Principles, values and assumptions underlying adoption practice. Social Work, 2:22.
Lawder, E. A., Lower, K. D., Andrews, R. G., Sherman E. A. and Hill, J. G. (1969). A Follow-Up Study o f Adoptions: Post-Placement Functioning o f Adoption Families. Child Welfare League of America, New York.
Richman, N. and Graham, P. J . (1971). A behaviour screening questionnaire for use with three-year-old children: preliminary findings. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 12: 5 .
Maccoby, E. E. (1959). The interview: a tool of social science, in Handbook o f Social Psychology (Ed. Lindzey, G . ) Addison-Wesley, Reading.
Richman, N., Stevenson, J. E. and Graham, P. J. (1975). Prevalence of behaviour problems in three-year-old children: an epidemiological study in a London borough. Journal o f Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 16: 277.
Mackay, N. (1967). The social workers responsibility: the adoptive parents. Australian Journal o f Social Work, 20: 2. McLelland, M. (1967). Social work and adoption, in Adoption Services in New South Wales: Proceedings o f a Seminar. Department of Child Welfare and Social Welfare, Sydney. McWhinnie, A. M. (1967). Adopted Children: How They Grow U p . Routledge & Kegan Paul, London. Mech, E. V. (1963). Post Placement Functioning in A d o p t i v e Families: A Questionnaire Survey. Mimeograph - Graduate Department of Social Work and Social Research, Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr (Abstract) Mech, E. V. (1965). Trends in adoption research, in Perspectives on Adoption Research. Child Welfare League of America, New York. Mills, R . (1966). Disabled adopted girls. Child Care, 20: 46. Phillips, E. (1965). The Victorian Adoption of Children Act 1964. Australian JournalofSocial Work, 18: 6.
Ripple, L. (1968). A follow-up study of adopted children. Social Services Review. 42: 479. Seglow, J., Kellmer, Pringle, M. and Wedge, P. (1972). Growing U p Adopted. National Foundation for Educational Research in England and Wales, Windsor, Berks. Sines, J. 0. (1970). Actuarial versus clinical prediction in psychopathology. British Journal o f Psychiatry, 116: 129. Werry, J. S. and Quay, H. C. (1971). The prevalence of behaviour symptoms in younger elementary school children. American Journal o f Orthopsychiatry, 41: 136. Wert, J. E., Neidt, C. 0. and Ahman, J . S. (1954). Statistical Methods in Educational and Psychological Research. Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York. Witmer, H. L., Herzog, E., Weinstein, E. A. and Sullivan, M . E. (1963). Independent Adoptions: A Follow-Up Study. Russell-Sage Foundation, New York.
Pringle, M. L. Kellmer (1967). Adoption: Facts and Fallacies. Longmans, London.
Wolff, S. (1967). Behavioural characteristics of primary school children referred to a psychiatric department. British Journal o f Psychiatry, 113: 885.
Pringle, M. L. Kellmer, Butler, N. R. and Davie, R. (1966). l1,ooO Seven-Year-Olds. Longmans, London.
Young, P. V. (1966). Scientific Social Surveys and Re.search. Prentice-Hall. Englewood Cliffs.
Reprint requests t 0: Dr. J . Kraus Senior Research Consultant Department of Youth Kr Community Services Box K718, P.O. Haymarket NSW 2000
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APPENDIX 1 Types and contents of manifestations of childhood dysfunction and percentages of adopted children showing these manifestations, when 7 years of age.
Girls
Total
(N=103)
(N=107)
(N=210)
3.6 1.9 6.8 4.9
20.6 0.9 8.4 5.6
17.2 1.4 7.6 5.2
0.7 4.9 9.7 2.9
11.2 3.7 9.3 5.6
11.0 4.3 9.5 4.3
1.0 1.0 28.2 5.8 0.0 ~7.8
1 .o
2.8 0.0 23.4 3.7 1.9 8.4 3.7
1.9 0.5 25.7 4.8 1 .o 8.1 2.4
15.5 14.6 25.2 9.7
11.2 13.1 20.6 6.5
13.3 13.8 22.9 8.1
22.3 4.9 2.9 18.4 32.0
15.0 10.3 8.4 18.7 16.8
18.6 7.6 5.7 18.6 24.3
10.7 28.2 5.8
15.9 24.3 5.6
13.3 26.2 5.7
17.5 14.6 12.6 9.7 20.4 7.8
12.2 8.4 6.5 5.6 12.2 3.7
14.8 11.4 9.5 7.6 16.2 5.7
23.3 11.7 9.7 20.4. 34.0 23.3 12.6 24.3 58.3 18.4 12.6 36.9
19.6 3.7 2.8 17.8 15.0 24.3 3.7 15.9 45.8 20.6 11.2 25.2
21.4 7.6 6.2 19.1 24.3 23.8 8.1 20.0 51.9 19.5 11.9 31.0
6.8 22.3 13.6 20.4 1 .o 7.8
13.1 19.6 7.5 17.8 3.7 6.5
10.0 21.0 10.5 19.1 2.4 7.2
37.9 33.0 16.5 7.8
47.7 21.5 13.1 7.5
42.8 27.3 14.8 7.7
Boys
Type and content of manifestations Gastrointestinal complains of tummy aches has often diarrhoea is often constipated has periodic vomiting- or bilious attacks Qther sbmatic complains of headaches has attacks of asthma gets eczema or skin eruptions has a squint or suspected squint Habit disturbance has twitches or mannerisms of the face, eyes or body has a stammer bites nails sucks thumb or finger during day wets self during day time wets bed at night time poor bowel control, soils pants by day Sleep disturbance has difficulty in getting off to sleep has bad dreams or night terror restless in sleep, tosses and turns has sleepwalked on a few occasions Fears and phobias is afraid of the dark when in bed at night generally fearful of unfamiliar people very much afraid of one or more animals easily upset by new situations or things happening for the first time worries about many things Eating problems has a poor aupetite is faddy, r e h i e to eat or dislikes many foods overeats for more than the occasional meal Peer relations quarrels a lot with olher children prefers doing things (playing, etc.) alone, rather than with others is bullied by other children dislikes going to school fghts with other children is timid, shy or fearful of other children Behaviour problems has difficulty in settling to anything for longer than a few minutes purposely destroys or breaks things has stolen things on several occasions quite often tells deliberate untruth is disobedient at home tends to be very jealous wanders off from home without permission misbehates to attract attention of adults often resists when asked or told to do something complains and whines a lot has temper and screaming tantrums is squirmy or fidgety, cannot sit still Mood disturbance is often miserable or tearful is irritable, quick to tly off the handle is very quiet and daydreams a lot has very changeable moods sulks for hours on end is very placid, shows virtually no emotions Total manifestatiom
-
--
--
1-5 6 - 10 1 1 - 15 16 +
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