School of Psychology, Ulster University, Cromore Road, Coleraine BT52 1SA, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Child Abuse Negl. 2022 Aug;130(Pt 2):105623. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2022.105623. Epub 2022 Mar 31.
Children who have been adopted from care are very likely to have experienced early adversity that may result in psychological trauma. A current debate in the field is whether adoption provides a pathway to healing for traumatised children, helping them to recover from past psychological harm, or creates trauma for children through the very nature of being an adopted child.
This study aimed to use longitudinal data pertaining to children who had been adopted from care to examine the relationship between being adopted from care and psychological trauma.
Seventeen adopted children had been interviewed in their adoptive homes during the third wave of the Care Pathways and Outcomes study (McSherry et al., 2013), when they were aged between nine and 14 years old. Ten of these children were selected for specific consideration in this article. Checklists for early adversities and psychological trauma were used to support the creation of case studies that highlighted the extent of psychological trauma in the children's lives.
The adopted children either experienced possible pre-care psychological trauma, with the impact of this reducing over time, in utero developmental harm due to their mother's alcohol misuse during pregnancy, inherited an intellectual disability, with the resultant difficulties superseding any concern regarding possible pre-care psychological trauma, or possible psychological trauma when moving from an established foster placement to adoption. Recommendations for policy and practice are provided.
从照料中被收养的儿童很可能经历过早期逆境，这可能导致心理创伤。目前该领域存在一个争议，即收养是否为受创儿童提供了治愈的途径，帮助他们从过去的心理伤害中恢复，还是通过成为被收养儿童的本质给儿童带来创伤。
本研究旨在使用与从照料中被收养的儿童有关的纵向数据，检验从照料中被收养与心理创伤之间的关系。
17 名被收养儿童在 McSherry 等人（2013 年）的《照料途径和结果研究》的第三波中在他们的收养家庭中接受了访谈，当时他们的年龄在 9 至 14 岁之间。其中 10 名儿童被选中作为本文的特定考虑对象。使用早期逆境和心理创伤检查表来支持创建案例研究，突出儿童生活中心理创伤的程度。
被收养的儿童要么经历了可能的前期心理创伤，随着时间的推移，这种创伤的影响逐渐减轻，要么在子宫内发育受到母亲怀孕期间酗酒的影响，要么遗传了智力残疾，由此产生的困难超过了对可能的前期心理创伤的任何关注，要么在从稳定的寄养安置过渡到收养时经历了可能的心理创伤。为政策和实践提供了建议。
