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Parental perception of developmental vulnerability after inter-country adoption: a 10-year follow-up study: longitudinal study after inter-country adoption

  • Gary Diamond EMAIL logo , Yehuda Senecky , Hadar Reichman , Dov Inbar and Gabriel Chodick
Published/Copyright: August 21, 2014

Abstract

Background: The goal of the study was to identify developmental disabilities in internationally adopted children and evaluate the utility of pre-adoption screening.

Methods: Parents of 191 adopted children (80.93%) completed the Parents’ Evaluation of Developmental Status (PEDS) questionnaire. Responses were analyzed for the reported presence of developmental dysfunction in the children.

Results: For 137 children, parental response rates ranged from 55% to 74.4% at different junctures. The cumulative incidence of reported concerns over developmental and behavioral disabilities at 12 years post-adoption was 79%. Children adopted after 1-year-old had more behavioral problems than those adopted earlier (relative risk=4.62; 95% confidence interval: 0.97–22.07).

Conclusions: Parents perceive international adoption as being associated with a substantial risk for developmental problems. Even meticulous pre-adoption screening cannot preclude developmental problems that may appear in later childhood.


Corresponding author: Gary Diamond, Child Development and Pediatric Neurology, Schneider Children’s Medical Center, Petah Tiqva 49202, Israel, Phone: +972-3-9253614, Fax: +972-3-5797184, E-mail: ; Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel; and Rose F. Kennedy Center, CERC, Department of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, NY, USA,
aGary Diamond and Yehuda Senecky should both be considered as first authors.

Acknowledgments

The research team is indebted to the untiring help by Ms. Irit Shick, who was instrumental in carrying out the survey.

Conflict of interest statement

Author contributions: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.

Research funding: None declared.

Employment or leadership: None declared.

Honorarium: None declared.

Competing interests: The funding organization(s) played no role in the study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the report for publication.

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Received: 2013-12-7
Accepted: 2014-5-13
Published Online: 2014-8-21
Published in Print: 2015-2-1

©2015 by De Gruyter

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