Cederblad M, Höök B, Irhammar M, Mercke A M
University of Lund, Sweden.
J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 1999 Nov;40(8):1239-48.
Sweden has now around 38,000 individuals who have been adopted from other countries. Most often they are transracially adopted and have a different appearance from their new parents--"visible" adoptions. This study was made to explore the mental health of a teenager/young adult group that arrived with their families in the southernmost county of Sweden between 1970 and 1977. They were placed through the largest Swedish adoption agency at that time. One hundred and forty-seven families and their 211 adopted children, who were 13 years of age or older at the time of the investigation, were interviewed in their homes. CBCL, SCL-90, a self-esteem questionnaire, and two family relations inventories were also completed. Compared to nonadopted Swedish young persons of the same ages, who had been investigated with the same inventories in earlier epidemiological studies, the adoptees had as good mental health. The adoptees also reported good self-esteem. The pre-adoption conditions were more important than the age of arrival in itself for the risk of later maladaptation. Family relations, various aspects of identity, and peer relations explained much of the variance of mental health and self-esteem. Those who were most engaged in questions about their identity and felt mostly non-Swedish had more behaviour problems. The association, however, between the factor "Identity" and the mental health variables approached zero for the older subjects (18-27 years of age). The majority (about 90%) of the adoptees felt mostly Swedish. Seventy per cent didn't feel any connection to their country of origin.
瑞典目前约有3.8万名从其他国家收养的儿童。他们大多是跨种族收养的，外貌与新父母不同——即“显性”收养。这项研究旨在探讨1970年至1977年间随家人抵达瑞典最南部省份的青少年/青年群体的心理健康状况。他们是通过当时瑞典最大的收养机构安置的。研究人员对147个家庭及其211名收养儿童进行了家访，这些儿童在调查时年龄在13岁及以上。同时还完成了儿童行为量表（CBCL）、症状自评量表（SCL - 90）、一份自尊问卷以及两份家庭关系量表。与早期流行病学研究中使用相同量表进行调查的同龄非收养瑞典年轻人相比，这些被收养儿童的心理健康状况良好。他们的自尊水平也较高。收养前的状况对于后期适应不良风险的影响比抵达时的年龄本身更为重要。家庭关系、身份认同的各个方面以及同伴关系在很大程度上解释了心理健康和自尊的差异。那些最关注自身身份问题且大多感觉自己不是瑞典人的人存在更多行为问题。然而，对于年龄较大的受试者（18 - 27岁），“身份认同”因素与心理健康变量之间的关联接近零。大多数（约90%）被收养者主要感觉自己是瑞典人。70%的人感觉与自己的原籍国没有任何联系。
