Age Of Adoption Research Articles

Agroforestry stand age influence physical and chemical soil parameters

The role of agroforestry in improving soil parameters is well known. However, there is debate as to how age of agroforestry practice affects physical and chemical parameters especially in the tropical region of Sub-Saharan Africa where adoption of the practice is fairly recent. To understand those effects, a study was conducted using soil samples taken in farms adopting/non adopting agroforestry practises, selected using a stratified, random sampling strategy. Soil was sampled from adopters and non-adopters using soil auger. At least five sub-samples were collected from each location and the soil mixed to get an integrated soil sample for analysis. The physical (sand, clay, silt and bulk density), chemical properties (pH, total nitrogen [TN], total phosphorus [TP], total organic carbon [TOC], carbon nitrogen ratio [C/N] and carbon to phosphorus ratio [C/P]) were analyzed in the soil. The exchangeable bases (K, Ca, Mg and Na) as well as micronutrients (Mn, Cu, Fe and Zn) were also analyzed. The results indicated that sand was significantly (P < 0.05) higher among non-adopters compared to adopters while silt and bulk density was significantly (P < 0.05) higher among the adopters compared to the non-adopters. Sand levels decreased while silt and bulk density significantly increased with increasing agroforestry stand age. The TN, TOC and C/P ratio were significantly (P < 0.05) higher among adopters and increased consistently with age of adoption, while C/N was higher among non-adopters and decreased with increasing age of agroforestry stand. The trend in exchangeable bases and micro-nutrients in the soil were similar, where higher concentrations occurred among adopters and displayed an increase with regard to age of agroforestry stand. Our results support the hypothesis that age of agroforestry practice affects soil in parameter-specific patterns.

SAT394 Over-representation Of Adoptees Among Transgender Subjects Seeking Gender-Affirming-Hormonal-Therapy (GAHT) In A Large Tertiary Medical Center

Abstract Disclosure: I. Yaish: None. G. Keltch: None. Y. Greenman: None. T. Kolitz: None. K.M. Tordjman: None. Background: The etiology of transgenderism is still unclear. Possible mechanisms range from inborn brain-specific anatomical characteristics, to endocrine-related genetic polymorphisms. In addition, psychosocial developmental factors, particularly trauma from early childhood, are believed to contribute. In line with a handful of previous reports, we were struck by what seemed to be an over-representation of adoptees among adult subjects seeking GAHT at our Transgender Health Center. Aims of Study: To confirm that adopted individuals are more likely to seek a gender transition process than nonadopted subjects, and to determine whether there are major differences between the 2 subgroups. Design and Methods: A retrospective study of treatment-naïve adult subjects seeking GAHT at our center between 01.05.2014 and 31.12.2022. The prevalence of adopted subjects in the cohort was compared with the national rate by one sample binomial test. Adoptees were compared to nonadopted subjects in the cohort by nonparametric tests. Results: During the study period, 671 new adult transgender subjects initiated GAHT at our clinic. Among them, 14 adoptees or 2.09%, which is an order of magnitude greater than the corresponding national rate of 0.22% (P&amp;lt;0.0001). This rate is lower than that reported from clinics for transgender youth in Canada (7.6%), in the US (8.2%), and in Britain (3.8%). Age of adoption was at, or below, one year in 13 cases, and at age 2.7 yr in one. The distribution of assigned-at-birth sexes was different between the 2 groups. Among the 657 nonadopted subjects, the breakdown was quite balanced, 323 had been assigned male sex (49.2%), and 334 female (50.8%). Among adoptees, only 3/14 (21.4%) were born males, and 11 (78.6%) females, P=0.056, by Fisher’s exact test. There was also a trend for adopted subjects to be somewhat older than non-adopted subjects. Their median age was 25.5 yr [IQR 23-30.75], as opposed to 23 yr [IQR 19-30] in non-adopted subjects, P=0.08. Characterization, and comparisons of parameters such as socioeconomic status, co-morbidities, and others, are still ongoing. Conclusions: There is an over-representation of adopted adults requesting GAHT at our center. However, the rate is lower than what has been reported from pediatric clinics, suggesting some of these subjects may seek help at a younger age. The findings support a contributory role of adoption in early infancy and the trauma around it in the development of transgenderism. Further research should attempt to decipher the mechanisms through which this early life event interacts with inborn properties. Presentation: Saturday, June 17, 2023

Do adoption age and country of origin matter for non-kin adoptees’ risk of psychiatric contact and post-adoption out-of-home care placement?

The aim of this study was to investigate within-group differences among Danish non-kin adoptees with regard to probability of mental health problems and post-adoption out-of-home care (OHC) placement, with a particular focus on whether adoption age and country of origin mattered. I used Danish registry data on non-kin adoptees born between 1989 and 1994 (N=2922) at the age of 17 and applied bivariate analyses and seemingly unrelated regression to describe associations between non-kin adoptees' adoption characteristics and two outcomes: (a) psychiatric contact and (b) post-adoption OHC. Psychiatric contact and post-adoption OHC co-occurred among non-kin adoptees, and these two life events should be considered jointly. Adoption age mattered equally for the risk of psychiatric contact and OHC, but country of origin mattered more for psychiatric contact than for OHC. Adoption at one year of age and older was associated with an elevated risk of psychiatric contact and OHC. Romanian adoptees had a higher likelihood of psychiatric contact when compared to all the other adoptees, regardless of country of origin. In contrast, adoptees from India had a lower probability of psychiatric contact and of entering OHC compared to all the other adoptees. The heterogeneity in non-kin adoptees' psychiatric contact and OHC in terms of adoption age and country of origin is important to consider in future research, as well as for social workers and clinicians in their role of promoting health and preventing mental health problems.

Talking about the Birth Family since the Beginning: The Communicative Openness in the New Adoptive Family.

Communicative openness within the adoptive family changes over time and helps the child explore his/her history. We aimed to evaluate whether adoptive families communicate about specific adoption-related themes from the beginning of their lives as a family. We created an instrument to track the communication process during the first year of adoption, involving a sample of 537 internationally adopted children (313 males, 224 females, mean age of adoption: 4.9 years) at two time points: six (T1) and twelve (T2) months after adoption. Our results suggest that in the first year of placement, children express memories about the past but tend to not speak about their birth families. We discovered a significant difference (Wald test = 4.889; p = 0.027) in communication about the biological family between the two points. The presence of adoptive parents who speak about it impacts the child’s questions about the past (exp (B) = 2.452, p = 0.006) and whether the child speaks about his/her biological family (exp (B) = 2.373; p = 0.017). Then, in the first year of adoption, the presence of an adoptive parent who communicates openly helps the child to ask questions and share his/her thoughts.

Early childhood adversity and non-affective psychosis: a study of refugees and international adoptees in Sweden.

Previous Scandinavian studies have shown increased levels of psychiatric morbidity in young refugees and international adoptees with an origin outside Europe. This study investigated their risk of non-affective psychotic disorders (NAPD) and whether this risk is influenced by early childhood adversity, operationalised as age at adoption/residency, and/or gender. Register study in Swedish national cohorts born 1972-1990 including 21 615 non-European international adoptees, 42 732 non-European refugees that settled in Sweden at age 0-14 years and 1 610 233 Swedish born. The study population was followed from age 18 to year 2016 for hospitalisations with a discharge diagnosis of NAPD. Hazard ratios (HRs) were calculated in gender stratified Cox regression models, adjusted for household income at age 17. The adjusted risks of NAPD were 2.33 [95% confidence interval (CI) 2.07-2.63] for the international adoptees and 1.92 (1.76-2.09) for the former child refugees, relative to the Swedish-born population. For the international adoptees there was a stepwise gradient for NAPD by age of adoption from adjusted HR 1.66 (1.29-2.03) when adopted during the first year of life to adjusted HR 4.56 (3.22-6.46) when adopted at ages 5-14 years, with a similar risk pattern in women and men. Age at residency did not influence the risk of NAPD in the refugees, but their male to female risk ratio was higher than in Swedish-born and the adoptees. The risk pattern in the international adoptees gives support to a link between early childhood adversity and NAPD. Male gender increased the risk of NAPD more among the refugees.

Influence of Duration of Agroforestry on Physico-Chemical Soil Quality Parameters in Machakos County, Kenya

The role of agroforestry in improving soil quality is well appreciated. However, there is debate as to how duration of agroforestry practice affects soil quality especially in the tropical region of Sub Saharan Africa where adoption of the practice is fairly recently. Therefore, objective this study was to investigate the influence of duration of agroforestry on physico-chemical soil quality parameters. The study was conducted using survey research design from a sample of 73 individual farmers, selected using stratified and random sampling. Soils were sampled from adopters and non adopters using soil auger. At least five sub-samples of soils were collected from each of the farmers and the soil mixed to get an integrated soil sample for analysis. The soil were packaged in two-kg khaki papers and taken to the laboratory for further physical attributes (sand, clay, silt and bulk density) and chemical analyses (pH, TN, TP, TOC, C/N and C/P). The exchangeable bases (K, Ca, Mg and Na) as well as micronutrients (Mn, Cu, Fe and Zn) were also analyzed. The results indicated that proportion of sand particles was significantly (P &lt; 0.05) higher among non adopters compared to adopters while silt and bulk density was significantly (P &lt; 0.05) higher among the adopters compared to the non adopters. Sand particle decreased with increasing duration of agroforestry adoption while proportion of silt and bulk density showed a significant increase in tandem to stand duration of agroforestry. The TN, TOC and C/P ratio was significantly (P &lt; 0.05) higher among adopters and increased consistently with age of adoption, while C/N was higher among non adopters and decreased with increasing age of tree stand and duration of agroforestry. The trend in exchangeable bases and mineral contents in the soil were similar where higher concentrations occurred among adopters and displayed an increase with regard to length of adoption of agroforestry. The current study lends support to assertion that duration of agroforestry positively improves soil quality and therefore urges for mass adoption of the agroforestry practice to enhance increased agricultural productivity.

Adoption of the Internet of Things in the Healthcare Services of Sri Lanka

The study explored the research issue of factors in the adoption of the Internet of Things in the health care services of Sri Lanka. To address this issue, the study examined Four research objectives respectively Evaluation of the impact of the proposed technological acceptance determinants on adoption towards IoT in the healthcare system evaluation of the moderating effect of Provincial area, Gender, Age in adoption towards IoT in the healthcare system. By extending UTAUT2 with other significant variables, such as perceived creditability and attitude, this study brought the novel insights into consideration for further research. UTAUT2 argued that the most influential antecedent to adoption intention was performance expectancy. This study gave a new perspective to identify trust as an influential factor driving intention to adopt IoT technology. This study provided insights for companies, to understand better what the determinants of adopting IoT products are. The research suggests that increasing physician’s adoption towards IoT and healthcare organizations should create awareness of IoT products. This could be done in two comprehensive stages; first increase awareness among healthcare staff, which should be the focus on the way to bring business benefits to the organization. Secondly, awareness should be created among the patients, the final customers of IoT technology, which should be focused on enhancing both novelty and quality of IoT enabled healthcare products.However, the IoT technology is still in its early premature stage of development and requires an intense evangelization. To a certain extent, this research had identified the critical factors that impact adoption towards IoT in the healthcare industry in the Sri Lankan context. Then results were supported by the empirical study of the research and can be implemented both theoretical as well as managerial context to impose a radical change in the field of technology adoption of the healthcare industry.

ROLE OF RELIGIOUS PREACHING IN UPBRINGING OF NEW GENERATION

Children are ambassador of new generation. They belong age of adoption and learning. They may be molded in any shape. Aim of religious preaching is enlighten the way of life, to make able children to face challenges, and knowledge of dos and don’ts. It is helpful to develop optimistic attitude and morality. Present study is focused on finding of impact of religious preaching on children gender wise and age group wise.

Do children adopted from British foster care show difficulties in executive functioning and social communication?

Early life experiences leave a mark on a child’s emotional, social and cognitive development. It is well established that children adopted from psychosocially depriving institutions have difficulties in executive functioning and social communication ability, but this type of research has not been replicated in children adopted from foster care. In this study, 30 primary school aged UK adoptees without a history of institutionalisation completed an assessment of their intellectual, executive functioning and social communication abilities. Compared to children of a similar age in the general population, the adopted group showed elevated emotional and behavioural difficulties on a parental report measure (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, SDQ). They performed statistically poorer on two of three computerised executive functioning tests (CANTAB Intra-Extra Dimensional Shift and Spatial Working Memory) and elevated scores were observed on a parental report measure of executive functioning (Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Functioning, BRIEF). A strong negative correlation was found between age of adoption and BRIEF scores controlling for ADHD symptoms; no other pre- or post-adoption variables strongly correlated with executive functioning. Although all participants scored below cut-off on an autism screening measure (Social Communication Questionnaire, SCQ), a moderate positive correlation was observed with age of adoption. The identified elevation in emotional, behavioural and executive functioning difficulties is in line with previous research examining children adopted from institutions; however, the observed negative correlation between BRIEF scores and age of adoption is contrary to previous evidence. Limitations and implications for future research are discussed.

Social competence in Russian post-institutionalized children: A comparison of adopted and non-adopted children

The study examined the social skills of 92 Russian children (males=64) adopted by Italian families. The children, aged between 8 and 14years, were compared with a control group of children who grew up with the biological family. Evaluation by both parents and children of the children's social competence were investigated. The results showed that, according to the parents' reports, the adopted children had more problems in social functioning than peers in the control group, along with a greater propensity to use maladaptive behaviors such as Oppositive Behavior, Rule-Breaking Behavior, Aggressive Behavior and Externalization. By contrast, according to the children's assessments, the adopted children were less aggressive and used prosocial behaviors to a greater extent than children raised in the biological family. The views of the parents and the children about the children's aggressive behavior were mutually conflicting.Finally, the influence of adoption related variables on the social competence of children was examined. Contrary to our expectations, there were no significant relationships between social competence and age of adoption, the duration of institutionalization and the time spent in the adoptive family.

Internationally adopted children in the early school years: relative strengths and weaknesses in language abilities.

This study aimed to determine the relative strengths and weaknesses in language and verbal short-term memory abilities of school-age children who were adopted from Eastern Europe. Children adopted between 1;0 and 4;11 (years;months) of age were assessed with the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Preschool, Second Edition (CELF-P2) and the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals, Fourth Edition (CELF-4) at age 5 and ages 6-7. Language composites and subtests were compared across time. All CELF-P2 and CELF-4 mean scores fell in the average range. Receptive composites were 102.74 and 103.86, and expressive composites were 100.58 and 98.42, at age 5 and ages 6-7, respectively. Age of adoption did not correlate to test scores. At ages 6-7, receptive language, sentence formulation, and vocabulary were areas of strength, with subtest scores significantly better than test norms. Verbal short-term memory and expressive grammar subtest scores were within the average range but significantly worse than test norms. A high percentage of children scored 1 standard deviation below the mean on these 2 subtests (27.3%-34.1%). Eastern European adoptees had average scores on a variety of language tests. Vocabulary was a relative strength; enriching the environment substantially improved this language area. Verbal short-term memory and expressive grammar were relative weaknesses. Children learning a language later in life may have difficulty with verbal short-term memory, which leads to weaknesses in expressive syntax and grammar.

Emotion Identification From Facial Expressions in Children Adopted Internationally

Children adopted internationally who are exposed to institutional care receive less social interaction than children reared in families. These children spend their preadoptive life with individuals from their birth country and are adopted into families who may look and interact differently. The presumed patterns of limited social stimulation and transition from ethnically similar to ethnically and culturally different social interactions may affect these children's ability to accurately identify emotions from facial expressions. Thirty-five 4-year-old children adopted from Asia and Eastern Europe by U.S. families were compared with 33 nonadopted peers on the Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy, Version 2 (DANVA2) Faces subtests. Correlation and regression analyses were completed with preadoption (adoption age, foster care exposure), postadoption environment (postadoption care duration, number of siblings, socioeconomic status), and individual (chronological age, gender, language competence) variables to determine related and predictive variables. The nonadopted group demonstrated better emotion identification than children internationally adopted, but no region-of-origin differences were found. English language performance was correlated with and predicted 20% of the variance in emotion identification of facial expressions on the DANVA2. Children adopted internationally who have stronger language ability tend to be more accurate in identifying emotions from facial expressions.

Attachment representations in late-adopted children: the use of narrative in the assessment of disorganisation, mentalising and coherence of mind

Late-adopted children have often suffered a wide range of deprivations in their pre-adoption lives. These early adverse experiences can have a negative effect on children’s attachment representations even after they have been adopted. This study assesses the attachment representations of 61 late-adopted children over the first year of placement, exploring the risk and protective factors of age at placement, length of adoption and gender. The attachment representations were captured using the Manchester Completion Attachment Story Task (MCAST), a doll-play narrative that provides four different attachment classifications – secure, avoidant, ambivalent and disorganised – and three global scorings for disorganisation, mentalising and coherence of mind.The age of adoption was negatively associated with disorganisation, while length of placement was positively correlated with mentalising. Males seemed to be more vulnerable to insecurity and disorganisation than females. The data also suggested that for children placed after the attachment-sensitive phase, the longer the time spent in the adoptive families and being female were protective factors. Moreover, attachment narratives seemed to be a useful tool to explore the inner world of late-adopted children from the first year of placement.

A longitudinal study of language and speech in children who were internationally adopted at different ages.

The author followed 56 internationally adopted children during the first 3 years after adoption to determine how and when they reached age-expected language proficiency in Standard American English. The influence of age of adoption was measured, along with the relationship between early and later language and speech outcomes. Children adopted from Eastern Europe at ages 12 months to 4 years, 11 months, were assessed 5 times across 3 years. Norm-referenced measures of receptive and expressive language and articulation were compared over time. In addition, mean length of utterance (MLU) was measured. Across all children, receptive language reached age-expected levels more quickly than expressive language. Children adopted at ages 1 and 2 "caught up" more quickly than children adopted at ages 3 and 4. Three years after adoption, there was no difference in test scores across age of adoption groups, and the percentage of children with language or speech delays matched population estimates. MLU was within the average range 3 years after adoption but significantly lower than other language test scores. Three years after adoption, age of adoption did not influence language or speech outcomes, and most children reached age-expected language levels. Expressive syntax as measured by MLU was an area of relative weakness.

Early Experience Shapes Amygdala Sensitivity to Race: An International Adoption Design

In the current study, we investigated how complete infant deprivation to out-group race impacts behavioral and neural sensitivity to race. Although monkey models have successfully achieved complete face deprivation in early life, this is typically impossible in human studies. We overcame this barrier by examining youths with exclusively homogenous racial experience in early postnatal development. These were youths raised in orphanage care in either East Asia or Eastern Europe as infants and later adopted by American families. The use of international adoption bolsters confidence of infant exposure to race (e.g., to solely Asian faces or European faces). Participants completed an emotional matching task during functional MRI. Our findings show that deprivation to other-race faces in infancy disrupts recognition of emotion and results in heightened amygdala response to out-group faces. Greater early deprivation (i.e., later age of adoption) is associated with greater biases to race. These data demonstrate how early social deprivation to race shapes amygdala function later in life and provides support that early postnatal development may represent a sensitive period for race perception.

Preadoption adversities and postadoption mediators of mental health and school outcomes among international, foster, and private adoptees in the United States.

Adopted children are a heterogeneous group, varying along numerous factors, including type of adoption (international, foster, private), length of exposure to preadoption adversities as indexed by age of adoption, history of preadoption maltreatment, and prenatal substance exposure. Yet, we know little about how these adversity factors are mediated by quality of postadoption parent-child relationships and/or the presence of special health care needs to produce specific child outcomes across different groups of U.S. adopted children. This study uses structural equation modeling to analyze cross-sectional data from the National Survey of Adoptive Parents to investigate differences in outcomes among three groups of U.S. adopted children: international, foster, and private. SEM results indicate that compared with privately adopted children, (a) children adopted from the foster care system were more likely to be identified with special health care needs, and (b) internationally adopted children showed on average poorer school performance as indexed by math and reading. Analyses yielded both direct and indirect paths between preadoption adversities and child outcomes, with the majority of associations mediated or partially mediated by quality of parent-child relationships and/or special health care needs status. The results of these analyses highlight the heterogeneity among different groups of adopted children within the United States and also underline the important mediating roles that the quality of parent-child relationship and children's special health care needs status have on adopted children's selected mental health and academic outcomes.

Attachment representations in internationally adopted children

Using the Story Stem Assessment Profile, attachment representations were analyzed in a group of 40 internationally adopted children studied after an average of 40 months since their adoption. These children were compared to 58 children living with their birth families and with no experience of maltreatment, and to 50 children who were living in Spanish institutions. All of the children were between four and eight years of age at the time of study. Findings indicated that the adoptees' representations were more negative than those of the control group, but similar to those of the institutionalized children. The associations between different indicators of attachment representations, as well as the role of adopted children's characteristics (pre-adoption experiences, adoption age, time with the adoptive family) were also analyzed. The results showed a long-term impact of early adversity, a certain degree of heterogeneity in the attachment representations' of both the adopted and the institutionalized children, and the role played by certain background and individual variables.

Intercontinental differences in overweight of adopted Koreans in the United States and Europe

A greater proportion of the United States (US) population is overweight or obese (with BMI over 25kg/m2) relative to all Western European populations, and it might be expected that migrants to either the US or Western Europe would develop patterns of overweight and obesity that reflect this difference. This paper examines the effects of obesogenic environments on Asians by reporting differences in rates of overweight (which is taken to include obesity in this analysis) among 261 adult South Koreans, which had been adopted in early-life into white middle class families living in the US and in Western European Nations. Data collected during an international adoption survey carried out for the Korean government in 2008 were analyzed. The prevalence of overweight of adopted Koreans raised in the US significantly exceeds the level among adopted Koreans in Europe by 11.3%. These intercontinental differences are statistically significant after controlling for sex, current age, age of adoption, and education. This paper supports the view that life-style factors are more detrimental for the weight status of people in the US than in Western Europe.

Adjustment of adolescent adoptees: The role of age of adoption and exposure to pre-adoption stressors

This study on 169 adolescents in Israel who were adopted between birth and nine years old examined whether and how their adjustment was affected by their age of adoption and the pre-adoption stressors they had experienced. The study participants reported moderately close relations and open communication with their parents, along with age appropriate peer orientation; high self-esteem; low levels of problem behaviors (as assessed by the Youth Self Report) and very low use of addictive substances and school dropout rates compared to the average in Israel. The findings showed no association between any of the outcomes assessed and either age of adoption or pre-adoption stressors.

The role of experience during childhood in shaping the other-race effect

It is well known that adults' face recognition is characterized by an 'other-race effect' (ORE; see Meissner & Brigham, 2001), but few studies have investigated this ORE during the development of the face processing system. Here we examined the role of experience with other-race faces during childhood by testing a group of 6- to 14-year-old Asian children adopted between 2 and 26 months in Caucasian families living in Western Europe, as well as a group of age-matched Caucasian children. The latter group showed a strong ORE in favour of own-race faces that was stable from 6 to 14 years of age. The adopted participants did not show a significant reversal of the ORE, unlike a recently reported study (Sangrigoli et al., 2005), but rather comparable results with Asian and Caucasian faces. Their pattern of performance was neither influenced by their age of adoption, nor by the amount of experience they accumulated during childhood with other-race faces. These results indicate that the balance of performance with Asian and Caucasian faces can be modulated, but not completely reversed, in children whose exposure to own- and other-race faces changes drastically during the period of maturation of the face recognition system, depending on the length of exposure to the new face race. Overall, experience appears to be crucial during childhood to shape the face recognition system towards the most predominant morphologies of faces present in the environment.