Survey Finds Most Adopted Children Are Healthy and Happy

According to extensive national data collected on adopted children and their families in the United States, the majority of adopted children are in good health and fare well on measures
such as social and emotional well being.

The report, entitled “Adoption USA: A Chartbook Based on the 2007 National Survey of Adoptive Parents,” was commissioned by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and conducted by Child Trends researchers. Researchers found that 85 percent of adopted children are reported by their parents to be in excellent or very good health. Parents also reported to researchers that 88 percent of adopted children age 6 and older show positive social behaviors.

The report was based on questions in the firstever National Survey of Adoptive Parents, a
federal survey of about 2,000 families that had adopted children through foster care, private domestic adoption or international adoption. The report describes adoption experiences, and well-being of these children and their families, making comparisons between
adopted children and the general population of children in the United States and among children adopted through different types of adoption.

Researchers found that more than half of adopted children perform at excellent or very
good levels in reading and math, according to their parents.

The report also found that adopted children are more likely to have been diagnosed
with depression, ADD/ADHD or some sort of behavior disorder. Although researchers
found that adopted children are for the most part in good health and show positive social
behaviors, 54 percent of children adopted from foster care have some sort of special health
care need. Thirty-two percent of children in domestic adoptions and 29 percent of those
in international adoptions also have special health needs.

Also, 87 percent of adoptive parents in the survey said they would “definitely” make the
same decision to adopt their children and 97 percent of all adopted children five and older
knew they were adopted. For private domestic adoptions, 68 percent reported post-adoption
contact with birth family; that is partly because 41 percent of families in this category adopted a relative’s child. For more information, visit
http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/09/NSAP/chartbook.

Reported by Adoption Today magazine (http://www.bluetoad.com/print.php?pages=6%2C7&issue%5Fid=29697)