Adoptive parents go to great lengths to raise their adoptive children, so why are their young kids’ behavior and test scores worse on average? I can’t imagine — but researchers, willing to dig deep, have come up with this explanation:
One clue might be attachment theory, which holds that a strong bond with at least one nurturing adult—usually the mother—is essential to a child thriving. That adult can be the adoptive parent, but the adoption itself might mean that the bond with the birth parent was disrupted or never formed, Zill writes. In the worst cases, these children might have experienced a traumatic event prior to their adoption. Early trauma can affect the parts of the brain that control mood and learning.
Infants and toddlers with a so-called “disorganized attachment” to their earliest caregivers—those who feel frightened of or dissociated from their parents—are more psychologically vulnerable later in life. Among other things, they have more problems regulating their emotions and managing conflicts without resorting to hostility. Parents who create disorganized attachment with their kids might be the sorts of parents who get their kids taken away and adopted out.
That last line raises some intriguing questions. I’d investigate that line of thinking a bit more thoroughly.
Does not that headline suggest that the IQ of the Adopting Parents is higher that that of the Adoptee’s Parents? If so, there is no mystery. What else would you have you expected?
What demographic variables are they controlling? Other than “in family” adoptions (couple adopts their dead sibling’s kids), the great majority of adoptions in the last couple decades have been either international or children from “challenging” circumstances.
Do adopted children have really better parents on “average”?
Right now it is really hard to get a non-special needs white kid for adoption, especially if you want them under two years of age. So, Lucklucky, I think the answer presently is hell yes. Abortion has really put a serious damper on the availability of basically functional kids that just need parents for adoption. Back around WW2 there were way more non-dysfunctional white adoptees available.
Psychologists go to great lengths to think up explanations that don’t involve genetic heritability of intelligence, impulsivity, and other important personality traits, a careful avoidance of wrong-think known as “science”. Mentally sound parents do not abandon their kids, and if they die in a plane crash, their kids are usually adopted by family members.