- Adopted child syndrome
Adopted child syndrome is a controversial term that has been used to explain behaviors in adopted children that are claimed to be related to their adoptive status. Specifically, these include problems in bonding,
attachment disorder s, lying, stealing, defiance of authority, and acts of violence. The term has never achieved acceptance in the professional community. The term is not found in theAmerican Psychiatric Association 's "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual", 4th edition, TR. David Kirschner, who coined the term, says that most adoptees are not disturbed and that the syndrome only applies to "a small clinical subgroup".Lifton, Betty Jean (1975). "Lost and Found: The Adoption Experience" ISBN 0-06-097132-0 (pp.274 - 275).] Researchers Brodizinsky, Brodzinsky, Schechter, & Henig [Being Adopted: The Lifelong Search for Self by David M. Brodzinsky, Marshall D. Schecter, and Robin Marantz Henig, 1993] find that in a review of the literature, generally children adopted before the age of six-months fare no differently than children raised with their biological parents. Later problems that develop among children adopted from the child welfare system at an older age are usually associated with the effects of chronic early maltreatment in the caregiving relationship; abuse and neglect.Psychologist Betty Jean Lifton, herself an adopted person, has written extensively on psychopathology in adopted people, primarily in "Lost and Found: The Adoption Experience", and "Journey of the Adopted Self: A Quest for Wholeness" and briefly discusses Adopted child syndrome.Lifton, Betty Jean (1975). "Lost and Found: The Adoption Experience" ISBN 0-06-097132-0.]
See also
*
Child abuse
*Child welfare
*Attachment disorder External links
* [http://www.amfor.net/acs/ Adopted Child Syndrome page, including bibliography]
* [http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~adoption/topics/psychopathstudies.htm Adoption History: Psychopatholgy Studies]
* [http://www.adoptionunchartedwaters.com Adoption: Uncharted Waters Official Book Web Site]
* [http://www.aican.org/ AICAN - Australian Intercountry Adoption Network]References
* Lifton, Betty Jean. "Lost and Found: The Adoption Experience" ISBN 0-06-097132-0 (1975); "Journey of the Adopted Self: A Quest for Wholeness" ISBN 0-465-03675-9 (1995).
* Smith, Jerome. "The Adopted Child Syndrome: A Methodological Perspective" "Families in Society" 82 no5 491-7 S/O 2001
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.