The report is: "America’s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being 2011." A link to the report is provided here, in: The Truth About Adoption: All You Need Is Love, And A Safety Net.
The section on adoption collected data from: The American Community Survey, a large annual survey of the U.S. population, providing estimates of a variety of groups and their characteristics; the National Survey of Children’s Health survey of households with a focal child age of 0–17 about their children’s physical, emotional, and behavioral health and their experiences with the health care system; and The National Survey of Adoptive Parents.
The section begins with these words:
"Because children develop best in the context of families, adoptive families are sought for children whose birth families cannot care for them." CANNOT! That does not extend to pressuring young girls that it is best for them to seek two parents for their child who may or may not remained a two-parent family it does not say we should encourage young women to pursue further education or a career in favor of parenting their own children.
It goes on to say: "Yet cchildren who are adopted, particularly those adopted beyond the first months of life, experience disruptions in parenting that can have longstanding implications for their development and well-being. Even children adopted as infants face challenges with identity development and issues of loss and grief regarding birth parents."
As quoted here, adopted children have higher rates of mental health problems than all other children, according to a federal report on the health and well-being of U.S. children released on Thursday.
About 2.5 percent of U.S. children are adopted, but the National Institutes of Health report found the disruption that affects some children who are adopted after the first month of their lives may have long-term effects.
While it addresses learning disabilities behavioral problems it still relates these issues to fetal exposure to alcohol and other substances, or early abuse or neglect at the hands of their original parents or institutions. And it is not not confirming the kind of anecdotal data we know: that adoptees are over-represented in all mental health and youth facilities - some of which see nearly a 50% adopted clientele percentage. It does not address the increased rate in suicide we see in adoptees, although it is adoption is known to be a risk factor for suicide.
In the end, despite the headlines, it is nothing new and it totally disappointing as far as I am concerned.
8 comments:
" Even children adopted as infants face challenges with identity development and issues of loss and grief regarding birth parents."
Well, of course we do. I can't imagine any one actually WANTING to be given away. But these issues are so totally denied for those who are placed as infants. It's as if our whole ancestry and the fact that we had original parents doesn't even matter. Hardly!
Infants feel no pain and are blank slates, right? Parents are interchangeable.
Exactly. And of course, as we get older and have more cognitive understanding we won't be the least bit sad that are n-parents didn't find us "valuable" enough to keep. Uh huh...sure.
Btw, your daughter is beautiful.
Robin - the issue was not being undervalued - but of being "valued" by OTHERS who put a price tag on you and used lies and coercion to obtain you from you mothers, because of "value" to them.
Mirah, I understand what you are saying. I was referring to the self-esteem damage that occurs as a result of feeling (usually wrongly) that we were unwanted and unloved by our n-parents. The pro-adoption sect never seems to want to address this issue. I have even read several times where first mothers of the BSE were told that the child would thank them for giving him up for adoption and would believe that showed how much the fmother loved us. All part of the lies and coercion you speak of.
Absolutely! And I knew you knew that.
And it didn't end at some magical end date in the 70s. Women are still lied to today. Just diff lies! Now they are promised openness.
But nether then nor now are expectant mothers told that their children will suffer feelings of rejection and abandonment - yes, even in open adoption where they get to see their mother go on to enjoy her life without them, even have other kids! And they are never told the higher rate of all kinds of emotional problems, substance abuse and suicide. Nor are they told that the adopters are likely to divorce - at LEAST 50% chance! Instead they are painted a fantasy.
They are never told the LIFELONG ripple effect on all their relationships, on their kids, on the children of their adopted-out child...on all siblings etc., etc. So many people effected and harmed by one "decision" they PUSH a woman into making while she is under stress, instead of offering to ease the problems she is facing.
Robin said " I have even read several times where first mothers of the BSE were told that the child would thank them for giving him up for adoption and would believe that showed how much the fmother loved us."
Not every woman or girl who was told that believed it, though some of them might say that now.
Also not everyone was even told that much. In fact some of them weren't told anything at all. They were just packed away for the duration of their pregnancy and brought back as supposed to be "born again" virgins.
Just saying.
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