Adoption requires a person to devote resources and energy to the upbringing of a child that carries unrelated genes.
While it has been shown that non-biological (i.e. step- or adoptive-) children are statistically treated in an inferior way by their parents than biological children are, the question remains in the case of adoption -- why are they treated well at all? Why are adoptive parents willing to put out so much time, energy and resources to help the reproductive success of a stranger?

A standard theory is that adoption, pursued mainly by otherwise childless couples, is a pathological hijacking of a parental instinct that would normally go towards encouraging the parents to raise biologically related offspring. If the parents are infertile, the psychological desires to raise a child remain and are transferred to an adopted child.

Adoption and Adolescence
Adoption adds complexity to parenting adolescents. Adopted teenagers may need extra support in dealing with issues that take on special meaning for them—identity formation, fear of rejection and abandonment, issues of control and autonomy, the feeling of not belonging, and heightened curiosity about the past.

Recent empirical work has shown that adopted children are more vulnerable to a host of psychological and school-related problems compared to their non-adopted peers. The rate of referral of adopted children to mental-health facilities is far above what would be expected given their representation in the general population. However, our understanding of the basis of these problems remains unclear

The need for adoption work to be based upon the best available evidence is plain; but it is particularly important in the light of the radical changes that adoption has undergone in recent times. It now covers a wide range of social arrangements for children, adopters and birth parents, and presents new and often perplexing challenges. .

Web directories to browse