What Affects the Happiness of Adopted Children in South Korea? Does the Adoption Matter to Their Happiness?

Abstract

Since the ultimate goal of adoption is to provide children a happy life in a stable family environment, our major concern is children’s happiness and well-being after adoption. While similar previous studies focused on adjustment and developmental outcomes, little research has investigated adopted children’s happiness and what factors affect it. Therefore, this study aims to examine the happiness of adopted children and identify factors contributing to variations in happiness. The research model was constructed based on ecological theory with the addition of adoption variables to determine whether adoption factors affect their happiness. The second wave data of the quantitative longitudinal investigation on the development of adopted children were used for the hierarchical regression analysis. Child characteristics (gender, age, and disability), adoption-related variables (older child adoption and child’s feeling about being adopted), family (household income and relationship between parents and child), school (academic achievement and school adjustment), and community (environment) characteristics were entered into the model sequentially. The child’s feelings about being adopted were significantly related to their happiness when this factor was first entered into the model. However, its significance disappeared once all variables were considered in the final model; in this case, only children’s disability, parent–child relationship, and school adjustment were significantly related to their happiness. The findings of the study suggest that adopted children’s relationships with family, friends, and teachers are more important to happiness than the adoption itself. The implications for social practice in adoption fields were discussed based on study results.