Internationally Adopted Children

Abstract

ABSTRACT The main aims of this study were to compare the prevalence and the developmental course of problem behaviors in a large sample of 1,538 internationally adopted children with the prevalence and developmental course of nonadopted children across adolescence. The higher levels of problem behaviors in adopted versus nonadopted children as reported by their parents, were confirmed by the results based on the children's self-reports of problem behaviors. The higher levels of problem behaviors in the adopted versus the nonadopted sample even increased across the 3-year study interval from ages 11-14 years to ages 14-17 years. It was concluded that despite the much higher levels of problems in adopted versus nonadopted children, the majority of adopted children seem to function quite well as adolescents.