Psychosocial Differences in Post-Institutionalized, Internationally Adopted Children and Other Groups of Children Referred for Clinical Services

Thousands of children are adopted into the United States each year, many of whom have spent a significant portion of their pre adoptive lives in an institutional setting. Post-institutionalized (PI) children adopted into the United States are often referred for mental health services at higher rates than other groups of children. There is a lack of research examining differences in clinically referred PI children and other groups. The purpose of this study was to address this gap in knowledge. Results from multiple analysis of covariance and follow-up pairwise contrast analyses found significant differences only between PI and domestic adoptees (DA). Specifically, DA exhibited poorer functioning in the areas of attention problems and social problems. Mean scores were above the 85th percentile for all indicators for all groups, indicating the severity of psychosocial problems for the sampled group of clinical referrals. More research is needed that compares the psychosocial problems of PI children to other adopted youth.