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Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from the biological parents to the adoptive parents.
Unlike guardianship or other systems designed for the care of the young, adoption is intended to effect a permanent change in status and as such requires societal recognition, either through legal or religious sanction. Historically, some societies have enacted specific laws governing adoption, while others used less formal means (notably contracts that specified inheritance rights and parental responsibilities without an accompanying transfer of filiation). Modern systems of adoption, arising in the 20th century, tend to be governed by comprehensive and regulations.
Markedly different from the modern period, ancient adoption practices put emphasis on the political and economic interests of the adopter,Brodzinsky and Schecter (editors), The Psychology of Adoption, 1990, page 274 providing a legal tool that strengthened political ties between wealthy families and created male heirs to manage estates.H. David Kirk, Adoptive Kinship: A Modern Institution in Need of Reform, 1985, page xiv. The use of adoption by the aristocracy is well-documented: many of Rome's emperors were adopted sons. Adrogation was a kind of Roman adoption in which the person adopted consented to be adopted by another. Some adoptions were even posthumous.
Infant adoption during Antiquity appears rare.John Boswell, The Kindness of Strangers, 1998, page 74, 115 Abandoned children were often picked up for slaveryJohn Boswell, The Kindness of Strangers, 1998, page 62-63 and composed a significant percentage of the Empire's slave supply.John Boswell, The Kindness of Strangers, 1998, page 3 Roman legal records indicate that foundlings were occasionally taken in by families and raised as a son or daughter. Although not normally adopted under Roman Law, the children, called alumni, were reared in an arrangement similar to guardianship, being considered the property of the father who abandoned them.John Boswell, The Kindness of Strangers, 1998, page 53-95
Other ancient civilizations, notably India and China, used some form of adoption as well. Evidence suggests the goal of this practice was to ensure the continuity of cultural and religious practices; in contrast to the Western idea of extending family lines. In ancient India, adoption was conducted in a limited and highly ritualistic form, so that an adopter might have the necessary funerary rites performed by a son.Vinita Bhargava, Adoption in India: Policies and Experiences, 2005, page 45 China had a similar idea of adoption with males adopted solely to perform the duties of ancestor worship.W. Menski, Comparative Law in a Global Context: The Legal Systems of Asia and Africa, 2000
The practice of adopting the children of family members and close friends was common among the cultures of Polynesia including Ancient Hawaii where the custom was referred to as hānai.
Europe's cultural makeover marked a period of significant innovation for adoption. Without support from the nobility, the practice gradually shifted toward abandoned children. Abandonment levels rose with the fall of the empire and many of the foundlings were left on the doorstep of the Catholic Church.John Boswell, The Kindness of Strangers, 1998, page 184 Initially, the clergy reacted by drafting rules to govern the exposing, selling, and rearing of abandoned children. The Church's innovation, however, was the practice of oblation, whereby children were dedicated to lay life within monastic institutions and reared within a monastery. This created the first system in European history in which abandoned children did not have legal, social, or moral disadvantages. As a result, many of Europe's abandoned and orphaned children became alumni of the Church, which in turn took the role of adopter. Oblation marks the beginning of a shift toward institutionalization, eventually bringing about the establishment of the foundling hospital and orphanage.
As the idea of institutional care gained acceptance, formal rules appeared about how to place children into families: boys could become apprenticed to an artisan and girls might be married off under the institution's authority.John Boswell, The Kindness of Strangers, 1998, page 420 Institutions informally adopted out children as well, a mechanism treated as a way to obtain cheap Child labor, demonstrated by the fact that when the adopted died their bodies were returned by the family to the institution for burial.John Boswell, The Kindness of Strangers, 1998, page 421.
This system of apprenticeship and informal adoption extended into the 19th century, today seen as a transitional phase for adoption history. Under the direction of social welfare activists, orphan asylums began to promote adoptions based on sentiment rather than work; children were placed out under agreements to provide care for them as family members instead of under contracts for apprenticeship.Wayne Carp, Editor, Adoption in America, article by: Susan Porter, A Good Home, A Good Home, page 29. The growth of this model is believed to have contributed to the enactment of the first modern adoption law in 1851 by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, unique in that it codified the ideal of the "best interests of the child".Wayne Carp, Editor, Adoption in America, article by: Susan Porter, A Good Home, A Good Home, page 37.Ellen Herman, Adoption History Project, University of Oregon, Topic: Timeline Despite its intent, though, in practice, the system operated much the same as earlier incarnations. The experience of the Boston Female Asylum (BFA) is a good example, which had up to 30% of its charges adopted out by 1888.Wayne Carp, Editor, Adoption in America, article by: Susan Porter, A Good Home, A Good Home, page 44. Officials of the BFA noted that, although the asylum promoted otherwise, adoptive parents did not distinguish between indenture and adoption: "We believe," the asylum officials said, "that often, when children of a younger age are taken to be adopted, the adoption is only another name for service."Wayne Carp, Editor, Adoption in America, article by: Susan Porter, A Good Home, A Good Home, page 45.
His solution was outlined in The Best Method of Disposing of Our Pauper and Vagrant Children (1859), which started the Orphan Train movement. The orphan trains eventually shipped an estimated 200,000 children from the urban centers of the East to the nation's rural regions.Ellen Herman, Adoption History Project, University of Oregon, Topic: Charles Loring Brace The children were generally indentured, rather than adopted, to families who took them in.Stephen O'Connor, Orphan Trains, Page 95 As in times past, some children were raised as members of the family while others were used as farm laborers and household servants. The sheer size of the displacement—one of the largest migrations of children in history—and the degree of exploitation that occurred, gave rise to new agencies and a series of laws that promoted adoption arrangements rather than indenture. The hallmark of the period is Minnesota's adoption law of 1917, which mandated investigation of all placements and limited record access to those involved in the adoption.Wayne Carp (Editor), E. Adoption in America: Historical Perspectives, page 160Ellen Herman, Adoption History Project, University of Oregon, Topic: Home Studies
During the same period, the Progressive movement swept the United States with a critical goal of ending the prevailing orphanage system. The culmination of such efforts came with the First White House Conference on the Care of Dependent Children called by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1909,M. Gottlieb, The Foundling, 2001, page 76 where it was declared that the nuclear family represented "the highest and finest product of civilization" and was best able to serve as primary caretaker for the abandoned and orphaned.E. Wayne Carp (Editor), Adoption in America: Historical Perspectives, page 108Ellen Herman, Adoption History Project, University of Oregon, Topic: Placing Out As late as 1923, only two percent of children without parental care were in adoptive homes, with the balance in foster arrangements and orphanages. Less than forty years later, nearly one-third were in adoptive homes.Bernadine Barr, "Spare Children, 1900–1945: Inmates of Orphanages as Subjects of Research in Medicine and in the Social Sciences in America" (PhD diss., Stanford University, 1992), p. 32, figure 2.2.
Nevertheless, the popularity of eugenic ideas in America put up obstacles to the growth of adoption.Ellen Herman, Adoption History Project, University of Oregon, Topic: Eugenics Lawrence and Pat Starkey, Child Welfare and Social Action in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, 2001 page 223 There were grave concerns about the genetic quality of illegitimate and indigent children, perhaps best exemplified by the influential writings of Henry H. Goddard, who protested against adopting children of unknown origin, saying,
The period 1945 to 1974, the baby scoop era, saw rapid growth and acceptance of adoption as a means to build a family.E. Wayne Carp (Editor), [https://books.google.com/books?id=gVnx_ymDu6wC Adoption in America: Historical Perspectives], page 181 Illegitimate births rose three-fold after World War II, as sexual mores changed. Simultaneously, the scientific community began to stress the dominance of nurture over genetics, chipping away at eugenic stigmas.Barbara Melosh, [https://books.google.com/books?id=mM_meNTALDkC Strangers and Kin: the American Way of Adoption], page 106 In this environment, adoption became the obvious solution for infertile couples.Barbara Melosh, [https://books.google.com/books?id=mM_meNTALDkC Strangers and Kin: the American Way of Adoption], page 105-107 Many of the mothers, however, were forced or coerced into relinquishing their children.
Taken together, these trends resulted in a new American model for adoption. Following its Roman predecessor, Americans severed the rights of the original parents while making adopters the new parents in the eyes of the law. Two innovations were added: 1) adoption was meant to ensure the "best interests of the child", the seeds of this idea can be traced to the first American adoption law in Massachusetts, and 2) adoption became infused with secrecy, eventually resulting in the sealing of adoption and original birth records by 1945. The origin of the move toward secrecy began with Charles Loring Brace, who introduced it to prevent children from the Orphan Train from returning to or being reclaimed by their parents. Brace feared the impact of the parents' poverty, in general, and Catholic religion, in particular, on the youth. This tradition of secrecy was carried on by the later Progressive reformers when drafting of American laws.E. Wayne Carp, Family Matters: Secrecy and Disclosure in the History of Adoption, Harvard University Press, 2000, pages 103–104.
The number of adoptions in the United States peaked in 1970.National Council for Adoption, Adoption Fact Book, 2000, page 42, Table 11 The years of the late 1960s and early 1970s saw a dramatic change in society's view of illegitimacy and in the legal rights of those born outside of wedlock. In response, family preservation efforts grewM. Gottlieb, The Foundling, 2001, page 106 so that few children born out of wedlock today are adopted. Ironically, adoption is far more visible and discussed in society today, yet it is less common.
The American model of adoption eventually proliferated globally. England and Wales established their first formal adoption law in 1926. The Netherlands passed its law in 1956. Sweden made adoptees full members of the family in 1959. West Germany enacted its first laws in 1977.Christine Adamec and William Pierce, The Encyclopedia of Adoption, 2nd Edition, 2000 Additionally, the Asian powers opened their orphanage systems to adoption, influenced as they were by Western ideas following colonial rule and military occupation.Ellen Herman, Adoption History Project, University of Oregon, Topic: International Adoption In France, local public institutions accredit candidates for adoption, who can then contact orphanages abroad or ask for the support of NGOs. The system does not involve fees, but gives considerable power to social workers whose decisions may restrict adoption to "standard" families (middle-age, medium to high income, heterosexual, Caucasian).Bruno Perreau, The Politics of Adoption: Gender and the Making of French Citizenship, MIT Press, 2014.
Adoption is today practiced globally. The table below provides a snapshot of Western adoption rates. Adoption in the United States still occurs at rates nearly three times those of its peers even though the number of children awaiting adoption has held steady in recent years, between 100,000 and 125,000 during the period 2009 to 2018.U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Trends in Foster Care and Adoption
| + Adoptions, live births and adoption/live birth ratios for a number of Western countries | ||||
| Australia | 270 (2007–2008)Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Adoptions Australia 2003–04 , Child Welfare Series Number 35. | 254,000 (2004)Australian Bureau of Statistics, Population and Household Characteristics | 0.2 per 100 live births | Includes known relative adoptions |
| England & Wales | 4,764 (2006)UK Office for National Statistics, Adoption Data | 669,601 (2006)UK Office for National Statistics, Live Birth Data | 0.7 per 100 live births | Includes all adoption orders in England and Wales |
| Germany | 3,601 (2023) | 692,989 (2023) | 0.5 per 100 live births | Includes 2764 family and stepparent adoptions |
| Iceland | between 20 and 35 yearÍslensk Ættleiðing, Adoption Numbers | 4,560 (2007)Statistics Iceland, Births and Deaths | 0.8 per 100 live births | |
| Ireland | 263 (2003)Adoption Authority of Ireland, Report of The Adoption Board 2003 | 61,517 (2003)Central Statistics Office Ireland, Births, Deaths, Marriages | 0.4 per 100 live births | 92 non-family adoptions; 171 family adoptions (e.g. stepparent). Not included: 459 international adoptions were also recorded. |
| Italy | 3,158 (2006)Tom Kington, Families in Rush to Adopt a Foreign Child, Guardian, 28 January 2007 | 560,010 (2006)Demo Istat, Demographic Balance , 2006 | 0.6 per 100 live births | |
| New Zealand | 154 (2012/13) | 59,863 (2012/13) | 0.26 per 100 live births | Breakdown: 50 non-relative, 50 relative, 17 step-parent, 12 surrogacy, 1 foster parent, 18 international relative, 6 international non-relative |
| Norway | 657 (2006)Statistics Norway, Adoptions, | 58,545 (2006)Statistics Norway, Births | 1.1 per 100 live births | Adoptions breakdown: 438 inter-country; 174 stepchildren; 35 foster; 10 other. |
| Sweden | 327 (2023) | 100,051 (2023) | 0.3 per 100 live births | Includes 84 international adoptions |
| United States | approx 136,000 (2008)The National Adoption Information Clearinghouse of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, How Many Children Were Adopted in 2007 and 2008? , September 2011 | 3,978,500 (2015) | ≈3 per 100 live births | The number of adoptions is reported to be constant since 1987. Since 2000, adoption by type has generally been approximately 15% international adoptions, 40% from government agencies responsible for child welfare, and 45% other, such as voluntary adoptions through private adoption agencies or by stepparents and other family members. |
Adoption is not always a voluntary process. In some countries, for example in the U.K., one of the main origins of children being placed for adoption is that they have been removed from the birth home, often by a government body such as the local authority. There are a number of reasons why children are removed including abuse and neglect, which can have a lasting impact on the adoptee. Social workers in many cases will be notified of a safeguarding concern in relation to a child and will make enquiries into the child's well-being. Social workers will often seek means of keeping a child together with the birth family, for example, by providing additional support to the family before considering removal of a child. A court of law will often then make decisions regarding the child's future, for example, whether they can return to the birth family, enter into foster care or be adopted.
Infertility is the main reason parents seek to adopt children they are not related to. One study shows this accounted for 80% of unrelated infant adoptions and half of adoptions through foster care. Estimates suggest that 11–24% of Americans who cannot conceive or carry to term attempt to build a family through adoption, and that the overall rate of never-married American women who adopt is about 1.4%. Other reasons people adopt are numerous although not well documented. These may include wanting to cement a new family following divorce or death of one parent, compassion motivated by religious or philosophical conviction, to avoid contributing to overpopulation out of the belief that it is more responsible to care for otherwise parent-less children than to reproduce, to ensure that inheritable diseases (e.g., Tay–Sachs disease) are not passed on, and health concerns relating to pregnancy and childbirth. Although there are a range of reasons, the most recent study of experiences of women who adopt suggests they are most likely to be 40–44 years of age, to be currently married, to have impaired fertility, and to be childless.
Unrelated adoptions may occur through the following mechanisms:
Ad hoc studies performed in the U.S., however, suggest that between 10 and 25 percent of adoptions through the child welfare system (e.g., excluding babies adopted from other countries or step-parents adopting their stepchildren) disrupt before they are legally finalized and from 1 to 10 percent are dissolved after legal finalization. The wide range of values reflects the paucity of information on the subject and demographic factors such as age; it is known that teenagers are more prone to having their adoptions disrupted than young children.
]] Joint adoption by same-sex couples is legal in 34 countries as of March 2022, and additionally in various sub-national territories. Adoption may also be in the form of stepchild adoption (6 additional countries), wherein one partner in a same-sex couple adopts the child of the other. Most countries that have same-sex marriage allow joint adoption by those couples, the exceptions being Ecuador (no adoption by same-sex couples), Taiwan (stepchild adoption only) and Mexico (in one third of states with same-sex marriage). A few countries with civil unions or lesser marriage rights nonetheless allow step- or joint adoption. In 2019, the American Community Survey (ACS) enhanced its approach to measuring same-sex couple households, explicitly distinguishing between same-sex and opposite-sex spouses or partners.
Same-sex parents, according to the ACS in 2022, were predominantly female. Notably, 26.8% of female same-sex couple households had children under 18, in contrast to 8.2% of male same-sex couple households. In homes with children, female same-sex couples were almost 12% more likely to have biological children compared with male same-sex couples; however, male same-sex couples were 18.5% more likely to adopt and were less likely to have stepchildren.
Other studies provide evidence that adoptive relationships can form along other lines. A study evaluating the level of parental investment indicates strength in adoptive families, suggesting that parents who adopt invest more time in their children than other parents, and concludes "...adoptive parents enrich their children's lives to compensate for the lack of biological ties and the extra challenges of adoption." Another recent study found that adoptive families invested more heavily in their adopted children, for example, by providing further education and financial support. Noting that adoptees seemed to be more likely to experience problems such as drug addiction, the study speculated that adoptive parents might invest more in adoptees not because they favor them, but because they are more likely than genetic children to need the help.
Psychologists' findings regarding the importance of early mother-infant bonding created some concern about whether parents who adopt older infants or toddlers after birth have missed some crucial period for the child's development. However, research on The Mental and Social Life of Babies suggested that the "parent-infant system", rather than a bond between biologically related individuals, is an evolved fit between innate behavior patterns of all human infants and equally evolved responses of human adults to those infant behaviors. Thus nature "ensures some initial flexibility with respect to the particular adults who take on the parental role."
Beyond the foundational issues, the unique questions posed for adoptive parents are varied. They include how to respond to stereotypes, answering questions about heritage, and how best to maintain connections with biological kin when in an open adoption.A. Adesman and C. Adamec, Parenting Your Adopted Child, 2004 One author suggests a common question adoptive parents have is: "Will we love the child even though he/she is not our biological child?"Michaels, Ruth, and Florence Rondell. The Adoption Family Book I: You and Your Child. Page 4. A specific concern for many parents is accommodating an adoptee in the classroom. Adoption: An American Revolution Familiar lessons like "draw your family tree" or "trace your eye color back through your parents and grandparents to see where your genes come from" could be hurtful to children who were adopted and do not know this biological information. Numerous suggestions have been made to substitute new lessons, e.g., focusing on "family orchards".http://www.familyhelper.net/ad/adteach.html Robin Hillborn, Teacher's Guide to Adoption, 2005
Adopting older children presents other parenting issues.Grade School: Understanding Child Development and the Impact of Adoption http://adoption.com/wiki/Grade_School:_Understanding_Child_Development_and_the_Impact_of_Adoption Some children from foster care have histories of maltreatment, such as physical and psychological neglect, physical abuse, and sexual abuse, and are at risk of developing psychiatric problems. Such children are at risk of developing a disorganized attachment.Lyons-Ruth K. & Jacobvitz, D. (1999) Attachment disorganization: unresolved loss, relational violence and lapses in behavioral and attentional strategies. In J. Cassidy & P. Shaver (Eds.) Handbook of Attachment. (pp. 520–554). NY: Guilford PressSolomon, J. & George, C. (Eds.) (1999). Attachment Disorganization. NY: Guilford PressMain, M. & Hesse, E. (1990) Parents' Unresolved Traumatic Experiences are related to infant disorganized attachment status. In M.T. Greenberg, D. Ciccehetti, & E.M. Cummings (Eds), Attachment in the Preschool Years: Theory, Research, and Intervention (pp161-184). Chicago: University of Chicago Press Studies by Cicchetti et al. (1990, 1995) found that 80% of abused and maltreated infants in their sample exhibited disorganized attachment styles.Carlson, V., Cicchetti, D., Barnett, D., & Braunwald, K. (1995). Finding order in disorganization: Lessons from research on maltreated infants' attachments to their caregivers. In D. Cicchetti & V. Carlson (Eds), Child Maltreatment: Theory and research on the causes and consequences of child abuse and neglect (pp. 135–157). NY: Cambridge University Press.Cicchetti, D., Cummings, E.M., Greenberg, M.T., & Marvin, R.S. (1990). An organizational perspective on attachment beyond infancy. In M. Greenberg, D. Cicchetti, & M. Cummings (Eds), Attachment in the Preschool Years (pp. 3–50). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Disorganized attachment is associated with a number of developmental problems, including dissociative symptoms, as well as depressive, anxious, and acting-out symptoms. "Attachment is an active process—it can be secure or insecure, maladaptive or productive." In the U.K., some adoptions fail because the adoptive parents do not get sufficient support to deal with difficult, traumatized children. This is a false economy as local authority care for these children is extremely expensive. 'I sent my adopted son back into care' BBC
Concerning developmental milestones, studies from the Colorado Adoption Project examined Heritability on adoptee maturation, concluding that cognitive abilities of adoptees reflect those of their adoptive parents in early childhood but show little similarity by adolescence, resembling instead those of their biological parents and to the same extent as peers in non-adoptive families.
Similar mechanisms appear to be at work in the physical development of adoptees. Danish and American researchers conducting studies on the genetic contribution to body mass index found correlations between an adoptee's weight class and his biological parents' BMI while finding no relationship with the adoptive family environment. Moreover, about one-half of inter-individual differences were due to individual non-shared influences.Albert Stunkard, An adoption study of human obesity, The New England Journal of Medicine Volume 314:193–198, 23 January 1986Vogler, G.P., Influences of genes and shared family environment on adult body mass index assessed in an adoption study by a comprehensive path model, International journal of obesity, 1995, vol. 19, no1, pp. 40–45
These differences in development appear to play out in the way young adoptees deal with major life events. In the case of parental divorce, adoptees have been found to respond differently from children who have not been adopted. While the general population experienced more behavioral problems, substance use, lower school achievement, and impaired social competence after parental divorce, the adoptee population appeared to be unaffected in terms of their outside relationships, specifically in their school or social abilities.Thomas O'Conner, Are Associations Between Parental Divorce and Children's Adjustment Genetically Mediated?, American Psychological Association 2000, Vol. 36 No.4 429–437
Recent research has shown that adoptive parenting may have impacts on adoptive children, it has been shown that warm adoptive parenting reduces internalizing and externalizing problems of the adoptive children over time. Another study shows that warm adoptive parenting at 27 months predicted lower levels of child externalizing problems at ages 6 and 7.
There is limited research on the consequences of adoption for the original parents, and the findings have been mixed. One study found that those who released their babies for adoption were less comfortable with their decision than those who kept their babies. However, levels of comfort over both groups were high, and those who released their child were similar to those who kept their child in ratings of life satisfaction, relationship satisfaction, and positive future outlook for schooling, employment, finances, and marriage. Subsequent research found that adolescent mothers who chose to release their babies for adoption were more likely to experience feelings of sorrow and regret over their decision than those who kept their babies. However, these feelings decreased significantly from one year after birth to the end of the second year.Donnelly, B.W. & Voydanoff, P.
More recent research found that in a sample of mothers who had released their children for adoption four to 12 years prior, every participant had frequent thoughts of their lost child. For most, thoughts were both negative and positive in that they produced both feelings of sadness and joy. Those who experienced the greatest portion of positive thoughts were those who had open, rather than closed or time-limited mediated, adoptions.
In another study that compared mothers who released their children to those who raised them, mothers who released their children were more likely to delay their next pregnancy, to delay marriage, and to complete job training. However, both groups reached lower levels of education than their peers who were never pregnant. Another study found similar consequences for choosing to release a child for adoption. Adolescent mothers who released their children were more likely to reach a higher level of education and to be employed than those who kept their children. They also waited longer before having their next child. Most of the research that exists on adoption effects on the birth parents was conducted with samples of adolescents, or with women who were adolescents when carrying their babies—little data exists for birth parents from other populations. Furthermore, there is a lack of longitudinal data that may elucidate long-term social and psychological consequences for birth parents who choose to place their children for adoption.
Evidence about the development of adoptees can be supported in newer studies. It can be said that adoptees, in some respect, tend to develop differently from the general population. This can be seen in many aspects of life, but usually can be found as a greater risk around the time of adolescence. For example, it has been found that many adoptees experience difficulty in establishing a sense of identity.Beauchesne, Lise M. (1997). As if born to: The social construction of a deficit identity position for adopted persons (D.S.W. dissertation) Wilfrid Laurier University
Identity is defined both by what one is and what one is not. Adoptees born into one family lose an identity and then borrow one from the adopting family. The formation of identity is a complicated process and there are many factors that affect its outcome. From a perspective of looking at issues in adoption circumstances, the people involved and affected by adoption (the biological parent, the adoptive parent and the adoptee) can be known as the "triad members and state". Adoption may threaten triad members' sense of identity. Triad members often express feelings related to confused identity and identity crises because of differences between the triad relationships. Adoption, for some, precludes a complete or integrated sense of self. Triad members may experience themselves as incomplete, deficient, or unfinished. They state that they lack feelings of well-being, integration, or solidity associated with a fully developed identity.24. Kaplan, Deborah N Silverstein and Sharon. Lifelong Issues in Adoption.
The research says that the dysfunction, untruths and evasiveness that can be present in adoptive families not only makes identity formation impossible, but also directly works against it. What effect on identity formation is present if the adoptee knows they are adopted but has no information about their biological parents? Silverstein and Kaplan's research states that adoptees lacking medical, genetic, religious, and historical information are plagued by questions such as "Who am I?" "Why was I born?" "What is my purpose?" This lack of identity may lead adoptees, particularly in adolescent years, to seek out ways to belong in a more extreme fashion than many of their non-adopted peers. Adolescent adoptees are overrepresented among those who join sub-cultures, run away, become pregnant, or totally reject their families.Kaplan, Deborah N Silverstein and Sharon. Lifelong Issues in A.Adoption, and it's Associated Therapy Issues. A Literature Review discussing the impact of adoption on Self-worth, Identity and the Primary Relationships of the Adoptee and both the Biological and Adoptive Parents. Christine Peers 11/7/2012
Concerning developmental milestones, studies from the Colorado Adoption Project examined Heritability on adoptee maturation, concluding that cognitive abilities of adoptees reflect those of their adoptive parents in early childhood but show little similarity by adolescence, resembling instead those of their biological parents and to the same extent as peers in non-adoptive families.
Similar mechanisms appear to be at work in the physical development of adoptees. Danish and American researchers conducting studies on the genetic contribution to body mass index found correlations between an adoptee's weight class and his biological parents' BMI while finding no relationship with the adoptive family environment. Moreover, about one-half of inter-individual differences were due to individual non-shared influences.
These differences in development appear to play out in the way young adoptees deal with major life events. In the case of parental divorce, adoptees have been found to respond differently from children who have not been adopted. While the general population experienced more behavioral problems, substance use, lower school achievement, and impaired social competence after parental divorce, the adoptee population appeared to be unaffected in terms of their outside relationships, specifically in their school or social abilities.
The adoptee population does, however, seem to be more at risk for certain behavioral issues. Researchers from the University of Minnesota studied adolescents who had been adopted and found that adoptees were twice as likely as non-adopted people to develop oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), with an 8% rate in the general population.Kaplan, Arline, Psychiatric Times, 26 January 2009 Suicide risks were also significantly greater than the general population. Swedish researchers found both international and domestic adoptees undertook suicide at much higher rates than non-adopted peers; with international adoptees and female international adoptees, in particular, at highest risk.Annika von Borczyskowski, Suicidal behavior in national and international adult adoptees, Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology Volume 41, Number 2 / February, 2006
Nevertheless, work on adult adoptees has found that the additional risks faced by adoptees are largely confined to adolescence. Young adult adoptees were shown to be alike with adults from biological families and scored better than adults raised in alternative family types including single parent and step-families.William Feigelman, Comparisons with Persons Raised in Conventional Families, Marriage & Family Review 1540-9635, Volume 25, Issue 3, 1997, Pages 199 – 223 Moreover, while adult adoptees showed more variability than their non-adopted peers on a range of psychosocial measures, adult adoptees exhibited more similarities than differences with adults who had not been adopted. There have been many cases of remediation or the reversibility of early trauma. For example, in one of the earliest studies conducted, Professor Goldfarb in England concluded that some children adjust well socially and emotionally despite their negative experiences of institutional deprivation in early childhood.Goldfarb, W. (1955). Emotional and intellectual consequences of psychologic deprivation in infancy: A Re-evaluation. In P. Hoch & J. Zubin (Eds.), Psychopathology of Childhood (pp. 105–119). NY: Grune & Stratton. Other researchers also found that prolonged institutionalization does not necessarily lead to emotional problems or character defects in all children. This suggests that there will always be some children who fare well, who are resilient, regardless of their experiences in early childhood.Pringel, M. L., & Bossio, V. (1960). Early, prolonged separation and emotional adjustment. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 37–48 Furthermore, much of the research on psychological outcomes for adoptees draws from clinical populations. This suggests that conclusions such that adoptees are more likely to have behavioral problems such as ODD and ADHD may be biased. Since the proportion of adoptees that seek mental health treatment is small, psychological outcomes for adoptees compared to those for the general population are more similar than some researchers propose.Hamilton, L. (2012). Adoption. In Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology. Retrieved from http://www.sociologyencyclopedia.com/
While adoption studies have shown that by adulthood the personalities of adopted siblings are little or no more similar than random pairs of strangers, the parenting style of adoptive parents may still play a role in the outcome of their adoptive children. Research has suggested that adoptive parents can have impacts on adoptees as well, several recent studies have shown that warm adoptive parenting can reduce behavioral problems of adopted children over time.
According to study in the UK, adopted children can have mental health problems that do not improve even four years after their adoption. Children with multiple adverse childhood experiences are more likely to have mental health problems. The study suggests that to identify and treat mental health problems early, care professionals and the adopting parents need detailed biographical information about the child's life. Another study in the UK suggests that adopted children are more likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress (PTS) than the general population. Their PTS symptoms depend on the type of adverse experiences they went through and knowledge of their history offers an option for tailored support.
The most recent adoption attitudes survey completed by the Evan Donaldson Institute provides further evidence of this stigma. Nearly one-third of the surveyed population believed adoptees are less-well adjusted, more prone to medical issues, and predisposed to drug and alcohol problems. Additionally, 40–45% thought adoptees were more likely to have behavior problems and trouble at school. In contrast, the same study indicated adoptive parents were viewed favorably, with nearly 90% describing them as "lucky, advantaged, and unselfish".National Adoption Attitudes Survey, June 2002, Evan Donaldson Institute, page 20 and 38."
The majority of people state that their primary source of information about adoption comes from friends and family and the news media. Nevertheless, most people report the media provides them a favorable view of adoption; 72% indicated receiving positive impressions.National Adoption Attitudes Survey, June 2002, Evan Donaldson Institute, page 47" There is, however, still substantial criticism of the media's adoption coverage. Some adoption blogs, for example, criticized Meet the Robinsons for using outdated orphanage imagery 3 Generations of Adoption, 12 April 2007 Maya's Mom, 7 April 2007 as did advocacy non-profit The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute.
The stigmas associated with adoption are amplified for children in foster care.National Adoption Attitudes Survey, June 2002, Evan Donaldson Institute, page 20." Negative perceptions result in the belief that such children are so troubled it would be impossible to adopt them and create "normal" families. The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute A 2004 report from the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care has shown that the number of children waiting in foster care doubled since the 1980s and now remains steady at about a half-million a year."http://pewfostercare.org/docs/index.php?DocID=41 The Pew Commission of Children in Foster Care
/ref> Preliminary Edition: This questionnaire has 23 items based on the Likert scale of 1 (totally Disagree), up to 5 (Totally Agree) being obtained after refining the items designed to construct the present tool and per-study study. The analysis of item and initial psychometric analyses indicate that there are two factors in it. Items 3-10-11-12-14-15-16-17-19-20-21 are reversed and the rest are graded positively. The results of exploratory factor analysis by main components with varimax rotation indicated two components of attitude toward adoption being named respectively cognitive as the aspects of attitude toward adoption and behavioral-emotional aspects of attitude toward adoption. These two components explained 43.25% of the variance of the total sample. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to measure the reliability of the questionnaire. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.709 for the whole questionnaire, 0.71 for the first component, and 0.713 for the second one. In addition, there was a significant positive relationship between desired social tendencies and the cognitive aspect of attitude toward adoption as well as the behavioral -emotional aspects of attitude toward adoption (P ≤ 0.01).
Forced adoption has also been enforced with the rationale of child welfare. The children of unwed or single mothers are commonly the target of such forced adoption. This was prominent during baby scoop era in the 1950s through the 1970s in the anglosphere. The children of parents in poverty have also been targeted for forced adoption under the rationale of child welfare. This was often the case for Verdingkinder or "contract children" in Switzerland between the 1850s through the middle of the twentieth century.
Birth records: After a legal adoption in the United States, an adopted person's original birth certificate is usually amended and replaced with a new post-adoption birth certificate. The names of any birth parents listed on the original birth certificate are replaced on an amended certificate with the names of the adoptive parents, making it appear that the child was born to the adoptive parents. Beginning in the late 1930s and continuing through the 1970s, state laws allowed for the sealing of original birth certificates after an adoption and, except in Alaska and Kansas, made the original birth certificate unavailable to the adopted person even at the age of majority.
Adopted people have long sought to undo these laws so that they can obtain their own original birth certificates. Movements to unseal original birth certificates and other adoption records for adopted people proliferated in the 1970s along with increased acceptance of illegitimacy. In the United States, Jean Paton founded Orphan Voyage in 1954, and Florence Fisher founded the Adoptees' Liberty Movement Association (ALMA) in 1971, calling sealed records "an affront to human dignity".Adoption History Project Topic Confidentiality While in 1975, Emma May Vilardi created the first mutual-consent registry, the International Soundex Reunion Registry (ISRR), allowing those separated by adoption to locate one another.ISRR – International Soundex Reunion Registry Reunion Registry and Lee Campbell and other birthmothers established CUB (Concerned United Birthparents). Similar ideas were taking hold globally with grass-roots organizations like Parent Finders in Canada and Jigsaw in Australia. In 1975, England and Wales opened records on moral grounds.R. Rushbrooke, The proportion of adoptees who have received their birth records in England and Wales, Population Trends (104), Summer 2001, pp 26–34."
By 1979, representatives of 32 organizations from 33 states, Canada and Mexico gathered in Washington, DC, to establish the American Adoption Congress (AAC) passing a unanimous resolution: "Open Records complete with all identifying information for all members of the adoption triad, birthparents, adoptive parents and adoptee at the adoptee's age of majority (18 or 19, depending on state) or earlier if all members of the triad agree."TRIADOPTION Archives TRIADOPTION Archives Later years saw the evolution of more militant organizations such as Bastard Nation (founded in 1996), groups that helped overturn sealed records in Alabama, Delaware, New Hampshire, Oregon, Tennessee, Maine, and Vermont.USA Today, As adoptees seek roots, states unsealing records, 13 February 2008." A coalition of New York and national adoptee rights activists successfully worked to overturn a restrictive 83-year-old law in 2019, and adult adopted people born in New York, as well as their descendants, today have the right to request and obtain their own original birth certificates. As of 2025, sixteen states in the United States recognize the right of adult adopted people to obtain their own original birth certificates, including Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, and Vermont. In 2024, Minnesota became the fifteenth state to ensure adopted people have the legal right to obtain their original birth certificate. In 2025, Georgia enacted a law that restored the right to adult adopted people to request their own original birth records, becoming the sixteenth state in the United States to do so.
As adoption search and support organizations developed, there were challenges to the language in common use at the time. Books such as Adoption Triangle by Sorosky, Pannor and Baran (1978) and newly formed support groups such as CUB (Concerned United Birthparents) argued for a shift in language from "natural parent" to "birthparent." Birthparent Legacy Term TRIADOPTION® Archives Birth Parents The Adoption History Project In 1979, social worker Marietta Spencer wrote "The Terminology of Adoption," introducing the idea of "positive adoption language" and arguing that "social service professionals and adoptive parents should take responsibility for providing informed and sensitive leadership in the use of words." Terms used in "positive adoption language" and the related "respectful adoption language" include the terms "birth mother" (to replace the terms "natural mother" and "real mother"), and "placing" (to replace the term "surrender").
In contrast, proponents of "honest adoption language" (HAL) emphasize the value of the family relationships that existed prior to legal adoption and note that mothers who have "voluntarily surrendered" children seldom view it as a choice that was freely made. Proponents of "honest language adoption" argue that the use of the term "birth mother" dehumanizes women who have given birth, likening them to an incubator, and does not reflect that mother-child relationships continue after the physical act of giving birth. Terms included in HAL include terms that were used before PAL, including "natural mother" and "surrendered for adoption," as well as the use of language emphasizing the lifelong status of adoptees, such as "is adopted" instead of "was adopted."
Nevertheless, some indication of the level of search interest by adoptees can be gleaned from the case of England and Wales which opened adoptees' birth records in 1975. The U.K. Office for National Statistics has projected that 33% of all adoptees would eventually request a copy of their original birth records, exceeding original forecasts made in 1975 when it was believed that only a small fraction of the adoptee population would request their records. The projection is known to underestimate the true search rate, however, since many adoptees of the era get their birth records by other means.R. Rushbrooke, The proportion of adoptees who have received their birth records in England and Wales, Population Trends (104), UK Office for National Statistics, Summer 2001, pages 26–34
The research literature states adoptees give four reasons for desiring reunion: 1) they wish for a more complete genealogy, 2) they are curious about events leading to their conception, birth, and relinquishment, 3) they hope to pass on information to their children, and 4) they have a need for a detailed biological background, including medical information. It is speculated by adoption researchers, however, that the reasons given are incomplete: although such information could be communicated by a third-party, interviews with adoptees, who sought reunion, found they expressed a need to actually meet biological relations.
It appears the desire for reunion is linked to the adoptee's interaction with and acceptance within the community. Internally focused theories suggest some adoptees possess ambiguities in their sense of self, impairing their ability to present a consistent identity. Reunion helps resolve the lack of self-knowledge.http://digitalcommons.mcmaster.ca/dissertations/AAINN60675/ K. March, "The stranger who bore me: Adoptee-birth mother interactions," Dissertation, McMaster University, 1990
Externally focused theories, in contrast, suggest that reunion is a way for adoptees to overcome social stigma. First proposed by Goffman, the theory has four parts: 1) adoptees perceive the absence of biological ties as distinguishing their adoptive family from others, 2) this understanding is strengthened by experiences where non-adoptees suggest adoptive ties are weaker than blood ties, 3) together, these factors engender, in some adoptees, a sense of social exclusion, and 4) these adoptees react by searching for a blood tie that reinforces their membership in the community. The externally focused rationale for reunion suggests adoptees may be well adjusted and happy within their adoptive families, but will search as an attempt to resolve experiences of social stigma.
Some adoptees reject the idea of reunion. It is unclear, though, what differentiates adoptees who search from those who do not. One paper summarizes the research, stating, "...attempts to draw distinctions between the searcher and non-searcher are no more conclusive or generalizable than attempts to substantiate ... differences between adoptees and nonadoptees."Schechter and Bertocci, "The Meaning of the Search" in Brodzinsky and Schechter, Psychology of Adoption," 1990, p. 70
In sum, reunions can bring a variety of issues for adoptees and parents. Nevertheless, most reunion results appear to be positive. In the largest study to date (based on the responses of 1,007 adoptees and relinquishing parents), 90% responded that reunion was a beneficial experience. This does not, however, imply ongoing relationships were formed between adoptee and parent nor that this was the goal.R. Sullivan and E. Lathrop, "Openness in adoption: retrospective lessons and prospective choices," Children and Youth Services Review Vol. 26 Issue 4, April 2004.
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