International Adoption and Stress Response Study

During the last decade, international adoptions have doubled in the United States. Because many of these infants and children have experienced institutionalization and poor caretaking before their adoption, international adoptees have special medical and emotional needs that must be met by both their parents and pediatricians. Currently, most clinical information about these children has focused on their physical health status so that protocols for evaluation and treatment can be established. Some systematic research has also focused on their overall developmental status including both cognitive and motor capabilities. These studies show that most of the children are developmentally delayed upon arrival to the U.S. Furthermore, follow-up studies have found international adoptees to score (on the average) significantly lower in cognitive functioning than their nonadopted peers even after spending substantial time in their adopting homes and falling mostly within the normal range. Not surprisingly, children's level of functioning at older ages is related to the length of time spent in institutional care.

These findings are consistent with an emerging literature on the lingering effects of early adversity on children's development. Potent adverse circumstances may include the unbuffered effects of poverty, experience in an institutional setting, physical or sexual abuse, and parental negligence Regardless of the source, children who are not protected from these disadvantageous situations demonstrate changes in their behavior as well as their biophysiological regulation.