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that I am trying to have the last word or something, I wanted to post what I read about adoption studies done from current data. It doesn't paint a glowing picture but it does have some adoption facts that aren't just downright gloomy. I think it will actually give some of those waiting hope that about "those" kind of kids. I don't agree with the writers point of view about many things but I have checked the data and it is factual. It states that most adopted children end up pretty much about the same as what you would find in general population.

So, at the risk of offending our single parent adopters out there, I will post part of this very long study and the link to it. Try to remember that the single parent aspect of the study, though it includes all ages of single parents, is made up of a disproportionate number of 10-17 year olds. That will skew the results. If the same study took into consideration, age, job skills, life exp etc, I don't think single parents would come out any differently than couples. It also did not include single males in the study. It included single adopters in with adoptive familes. Not with single mothers raising their children. What I am saying is I firmly believe that single parents can be as good as (better than in a lot of cases) couples. So don't yell at me for this, it just has excellant factual statistics.

Virtually all of these findings have been replicated by Nicholas Zill, Vice President and Director of Child and Family Studies at Westat Research Corporation of Maryland, in his analysis of data from the federal government's 1988 National Health Interview Survey on Child Health.32 Results from the survey were compared across four groups: adopted children, children of unmarried mothers being raised by the mother, children of intact families, and children being raised by their grandparents. The data indicated that adopted children:

* Enjoy a quality of home environment superior to all the other groups;33

* Have superior access to health care compare d to all the other groups;34

* Enjoy health similar to that of children of intact families and superior to that of the other two groups; and

* Do better in educational attainment than single-parent children and children raised by grandparents.35

When compared with those adopted later, born outside of marriage and raised by the single mother, or raised in an intact family, children who are adopted in infancy:

* Repeat grades less often than any other group;

* See mental health professionals less than all other groups, except children of intact families;

* Have better health status than all other groups;

* Have a better standing in their school classes than all other groups, except children raised in intact families; and

* Have fewer behavior problems than all other groups, except children raised in intact families.

and

WHY ADOPTION SHOULD BE ENCOURAGED

Benefits for Children

Adopted children do as well as or better than their non-adopted counterparts, according to a 1994 study by the Search Institute, a Minneapolis-based public policy research organization specializing in questions of concern to states and cities.23 This study, the largest examination of adopted adolescents yet undertaken, concludes that:

Teens who were adopted at birth are more likely than children born into intact families to live with two parents in a middle-class family.24

Adopted children score higher than their middle-class counterparts on indicators of school performance, social competency, optimism, and volunteerism.25

Adopted adolescents generally are less depressed than children of single parents and less involved in alcohol abuse, vandalism, group fighting, police trouble, weapon use, and theft.26

Adopted adolescents score higher than children of single parents on self-esteem, confidence in their own judgment, self-directedness, positive view of others, and feelings of security within their families.27

On health measures, adopted children and children of intact families share similarly high scores, and both those groups score significantly higher than children raised by single parents.28

Adopted children do well at school. In 1981, only 7 percent of children adopted in infancy repeated a grade, while 12 percent of children living with both biological parents repeated a grade.29

Compared with the general child population, children placed with adoptive couples are better off economically. Their parents are better educated and older than the parents of other children.30

Adoptive parents are less likely to divorce.31

The entire study (and it is very long) can be read at

http://www.heritage.org/library/cate...el/bg1045.html

According to this adoptive children, as a whole, do better than average. This was what led me to pondering the whole nature VS nurture thing.

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Originally Posted By Anon.

nt

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You obviously read a lot and research this subject. Thank you for contributing to the board.