17 December 2009

Internationally Adopted Children Are Thriving, Study Shows

Angie Hayward of Mattawan, Michigan, holds Tatum, 4, a special-needs child she adopted.

By Jeffrey Thomas
Staff Writer

Washington — Even as the latest figures show a continuing multi-year decline in the number of U.S. children adopted from other countries, a U.S. government survey released in November finds that most of these international adoptees are in good health and fare well on measures of social and emotional well-being. They get a lot of attention from their parents and generally do well in school.

The survey, Adoption USA, was conducted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services between April 2007 and June 2008 and is nationally representative. Information was drawn from more than 90,000 children who represent the nation’s 73.8 million children, including the 1.8 million who are adopted. Some key findings include:

• 87 percent of adopted children have parents who said they would “definitely” make the same decision to adopt their child, knowing everything that they now know about their child.

• More than nine out of 10 adopted children ages 5 and older have parents who perceived their child’s feelings towards the adoption as “positive” or “mostly positive.”

• Almost nine out of 10 adopted children ages 6 and older exhibit positive social behaviors.

• 85 percent of internationally adopted children have parents who reported their relationship with their child as very warm and close. In addition, 42 percent had parents who reported the relationship as “better than ever expected,” with only 15 percent reporting the relationship as “more difficult” than they expected.

U.S. CULTURE CELEBRATES ADOPTION

The United States is not only an adoption-friendly country, but one in which adoption is celebrated.

“Community support is strong,” said Kathleen Kukielka of Children’s Home Society & Family Services (CHSFS), a nonprofit organization that provides adoption services. “Every day we see neighbors and co-workers helping adoptive families raise funds for the adoption through activities like garage sales and online appeals. In many cases, immigrant communities embrace families formed through adoption and help the adoptive parents connect their children with the culture and customs of their birth land.”

Sister Elizabeth recognized Ania McNamara immediately when Ania visited the orphanage from which she was adopted in Chotomow, Poland.

“Some of that is uniquely American, probably from our melting pot culture that we’re all the children of immigrants if you trace it back far enough,” said Sarah Mraz, the director of programs for the nonprofit Wide Horizons for Children (WHC), the largest adoption agency in the northeastern United States.

Mraz said international partners with whom she works are often amazed at the willingness of American parents to take children from other cultures into their families. “While we have our share of racism and discrimination, it’s partly just American to be accepting of other cultures,” she said.

Adoption is more common in the United States than any other country. There were 70,000 domestic adoptions in fiscal year (FY) 2009 — and Americans adopted more children born overseas in that period than the rest of the world combined (almost 13,000).

INTERNATIONAL ADOPTIONS SHOW DOWNWARD TREND

International adoptions by U.S. families have declined steadily and significantly since 2005, when 22,739 children were adopted. In FY 2009 fewer than 13,000 were adopted, according to State Department figures. Thomas DiFilippo, president of the Joint Council on International Children’s Services, expects the figure for 2010 to drop below 10,000.

DiFilippo cited government actions as the main reason for the decline. Rather than “aggressively and vigorously investigating, prosecuting and convicting those who are involved in any type of corruption or abuse of children, the reaction [of some governments] is to close international adoption,” which leaves children sitting in an orphanage, he said.

“We want to eliminate corruption, but we don’t want to require children to remain outside of family care as a result,” DiFilippo said, citing recent research that shows that children who are not in permanent families suffer in terms of height, weight, IQ and even brain mass.

According to Kukielka, “the decline is the result of a ‘perfect storm’ of challenges that include the recession, changes in international adoption policies made by countries to address real and perceived irregularities in the adoption process, and social unrest that makes travel for staff and adoptive families more risky.”

“Interest in adoption remains strong, but the recession has made it difficult for many families to afford international adoption, which can be expensive,” she said, citing costs ranging from $20,000 to $40,000 for an adoption including agency fees, country fees and travel expenses. “Part of this fee helps support orphanages and child welfare development within the country.”

Mraz sees the growth in international adoption in the 1990s and early 2000s as due to some unique events in China, the former Soviet bloc countries and the developing world. Many of these countries have developed their economies and improved their social safety nets, she said. “We’re seeing more domestic adoption being culturally accepted where it wasn’t before.”

The need for international adoption continues, however. Under the Hague Convention, governments have the responsibility to find children a family. “When that domestic adoption in the child’s country of origin is not possible, then intercountry adoption opens another opportunity for a child to find the loving home that he or she deserves,” said Michele Bond, deputy assistant secretary of state for consular affairs.

For more information, see “United States Says International Adoption Important for Children in Need” and the Adoption USA survey.