TY - JOUR
T1 - Charting the trajectories of adopted children’s emotional and behavioral problems: The impact of early adversity and postadoptive parental warmth
AU - Paine, Amy L.
AU - Perra, Oliver
AU - Anthony, Rebecca
AU - Shelton, Katherine H.
PY - 2020/5/5
Y1 - 2020/5/5
N2 - Children who are adopted from care are more likely to experience enduring emotional and behavioral problems across development; however, adoptees’ trajectories of mental health problems and factors that impact their trajectories are poorly understood. Therefore, we used
multilevel growth analyses to chart adoptees’ internalizing and externalizing problems across childhood, and examined the associations
between preadoptive risk and postadoptive protective factors on their trajectories. This was investigated in a prospective longitudinal
study of case file records (N = 374) and questionnaire-based follow-ups (N = 96) at approximately 5, 21, and 36 months postadoptive placement. Preadoptive adversity (indexed by age at placement, days in care, and number of adverse childhood experiences) was associated with
higher internalizing and externalizing scores; the decrease in internalizing scores over childhood was accelerated for those exposed to lower
levels of preadoptive risk. Warm adoptive parenting was associated with a marked reduction in children’s internalizing and externalizing
problems over time. Although potentially limited by shared methods variance and lack of variability in parental warmth scores, these findings demonstrate the deleterious impact of preadoptive risk and the positive role of exceptionally warm adoptive parenting on children’s
trajectories of mental health problems and have relevance for prevention and intervention strategies.
AB - Children who are adopted from care are more likely to experience enduring emotional and behavioral problems across development; however, adoptees’ trajectories of mental health problems and factors that impact their trajectories are poorly understood. Therefore, we used
multilevel growth analyses to chart adoptees’ internalizing and externalizing problems across childhood, and examined the associations
between preadoptive risk and postadoptive protective factors on their trajectories. This was investigated in a prospective longitudinal
study of case file records (N = 374) and questionnaire-based follow-ups (N = 96) at approximately 5, 21, and 36 months postadoptive placement. Preadoptive adversity (indexed by age at placement, days in care, and number of adverse childhood experiences) was associated with
higher internalizing and externalizing scores; the decrease in internalizing scores over childhood was accelerated for those exposed to lower
levels of preadoptive risk. Warm adoptive parenting was associated with a marked reduction in children’s internalizing and externalizing
problems over time. Although potentially limited by shared methods variance and lack of variability in parental warmth scores, these findings demonstrate the deleterious impact of preadoptive risk and the positive role of exceptionally warm adoptive parenting on children’s
trajectories of mental health problems and have relevance for prevention and intervention strategies.
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579420000231
DO - https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579420000231
M3 - Article
JO - Development and Psychopathology
JF - Development and Psychopathology
SN - 0954-5794
ER -