School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK.
School of Nursing and Midwifery and Centre for Evidence and Social Innovation, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UK.
Dev Psychopathol. 2021 Aug;33(3):922-936. doi: 10.1017/S0954579420000231.
Children who are adopted from care are more likely to experience enduring emotional and behavioral problems across development; however, adoptees' trajectories of mental health problems and factors that impact their trajectories are poorly understood. Therefore, we used multilevel growth analyses to chart adoptees' internalizing and externalizing problems across childhood, and examined the associations between preadoptive risk and postadoptive protective factors on their trajectories. This was investigated in a prospective longitudinal study of case file records (N = 374) and questionnaire-based follow-ups (N = 96) at approximately 5, 21, and 36 months postadoptive placement. Preadoptive adversity (indexed by age at placement, days in care, and number of adverse childhood experiences) was associated with higher internalizing and externalizing scores; the decrease in internalizing scores over childhood was accelerated for those exposed to lower levels of preadoptive risk. Warm adoptive parenting was associated with a marked reduction in children's internalizing and externalizing problems over time. Although potentially limited by shared methods variance and lack of variability in parental warmth scores, these findings demonstrate the deleterious impact of preadoptive risk and the positive role of exceptionally warm adoptive parenting on children's trajectories of mental health problems and have relevance for prevention and intervention strategies.
从照料中被收养的儿童在整个发展过程中更有可能经历持久的情绪和行为问题；然而，收养儿的心理健康问题轨迹以及影响这些轨迹的因素还知之甚少。因此，我们使用多层次增长分析来描绘收养儿在整个童年时期的内化和外化问题，并研究了先领养风险与后领养保护因素之间的关联及其对轨迹的影响。这项研究是在一项前瞻性纵向案例档案记录研究（N=374）和基于问卷调查的随访研究（N=96）中进行的，随访时间分别为领养后约 5、21 和 36 个月。先领养逆境（通过安置年龄、在照料中天数和不良童年经历数量来衡量）与更高的内化和外化评分相关；与暴露于较低先领养风险水平的儿童相比，他们的内化评分在整个童年时期的下降速度加快。温暖的收养育儿方式与儿童内化和外化问题随时间的显著减少有关。尽管可能受到共同方法方差和父母温暖评分缺乏变异性的限制，但这些发现表明了先领养风险的有害影响以及异常温暖的收养育儿方式对儿童心理健康问题轨迹的积极作用，这对预防和干预策略具有重要意义。
