Background

There are few studies on late-adopted adolescents' outcomes -e.g., emotional-behavioral problems, attachment and cognitive status- and their possible predictive factors, none from Italy. Objective: This paper aimed to investigate emotional-behavioral problems, attachment representations, and verbal skills in late-adopted adolescents in Italy and to explore the predictive role of pre-adoption adversities and adoption variables for worse adoptees' outcomes.

Participants and setting

The study included N = 79 late-adopted (mean age at adoption = 6 years) adolescents, between 11 and 18 years, placed via both intercountry and domestic adoption.

Methods

Parents provided information about pre-adoption and adoption history and filled the Children's Behavior Checklist 6–18 for measuring participants' emotional-behavioral problems. Attachment representations were assessed through the Friend and Family Interview administered directly to adolescents, like the verbal comprehension index of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (4th edition) for measuring participants' verbal IQ.

Results

Maltreatment and its interaction with multiple placements were the main predictors of other problems—i.e., social, thought, and identity difficulties (respectively, p = .007 and p = .029)—while intercountry adoption was the unique predictor of both externalizing and total problems (respectively, p = .047 and p = .015). However, domestic adoption was the most important predictor both for higher insecurity and disorganized attachment representations and lower verbal skills (all p < .044); even stronger if domestic adoption interacted with pre-adoptive institutionalization.

Conclusions

Pre-adoption adversities as well as domestic vs. intercountry adoption, but not the age at placement, contributed to adolescent adoptees' developmental outcomes.

中文翻译：

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晚期收养青少年的情绪行为问题、依恋和语言技能：收养前逆境和收养变量的作用

背景

很少有关于晚收青少年的结果（例如，情绪行为问题、依恋和认知状态）及其可能的预测因素的研究，没有来自意大利。目的：本文旨在调查意大利晚收养青少年的情绪行为问题、依恋表征和语言技能，并探讨收养前逆境和收养变量对更差收养者结局的预测作用。

参与者和设置

该研究包括 N = 79 名晚收养（收养时的平均年龄 = 6 岁）青少年，年龄在 11 至 18 岁之间，通过跨国和国内收养进行安置。

方法

父母提供了有关收养前和收养历史的信息，并填写了儿童行为检查表 6-18，以衡量参与者的情绪行为问题。依恋表征通过直接对青少年进行的朋友和家庭访谈进行评估，例如用于测量参与者语言智商的韦克斯勒儿童智力量表（第 4 版）的语言理解指数。

结果

虐待及其与多次安置的相互作用是其他问题的主要预测因素——即社会、思想和身份困难（分别为p  = .007 和p  = .029）——而跨国收养是外化和总体问题的唯一预测因素问题（分别为p  = .047 和p  = .015）。然而，家庭收养是较高的不安全感和杂乱无章的依恋表现以及较低的语言技能的最重要预测因素（所有p  < .044）；如果国内收养与收养前的制度化相互作用，那就更强大了。

结论

收养前的逆境以及国内收养与跨国收养，但不是安置年龄，对青少年收养者的发展成果做出了贡献。