“History of Early Neglect and Middle Childhood Social Competence: An Adoption Study” by Dr. Tony Xing Tan. Adoption Quarterly, 9(4), 57-72 (2006)
Effects of Orphanage Care
This study examined 115 girls (6 to 8 years old at the time of the study) adopted from China before the age of two to determine whether history of neglect in infancy was associated with middle childhood competence. Competence was measured by participation and performance in extracurricular activities, quality of social relations, and academic achievement. Of the 115 girls, 31 experienced neglect pre-adoption; the remaining 84 had not.
I wondered how the study would determine “neglect” since this information is seldom available from the adoption records. To overcome the future of Chinese adoption and how kids are doing post-adoption, he mentioned this study.
The first interesting result from this study was that initial rejecting behavior towards a parent was not greater in those girls that experienced neglect pre-adoption. The second interesting finding was that initial rejecting behaviors predicted significantly lower social relation score in middle childhood (6-8 years old). This seemed to indicate that early relationship with the mother might serve as a learning model in the adopted girls’ subsequent socialization. On the other hand, the mother’s perception of rejection from the child might also influence her subsequent parenting. This type of analysis was beyond the scope of this study. The study apparently did not distinguish between rejecting behavior toward the adoptive mother or toward the adoptive father. I look forward to subsequent analysis and study, which I believe is underway.
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