BACKGROUND Little is known about the effect adoption status has on psychological adjustment (for instance, depression, anxiety, problem behaviour, or drug misuse) in adulthood. The aim of this study was to conduct a meta-analysis to study the impact of adoption status on adult adoptees' psychological adjustment. METHOD The review included 18 quasi-experimental studies conducted between 1993 and 2019. RESULTS Adoptees had significantly worse psychological adjustment than non-adoptees across all outcomes, except for the obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and antisocial personality disorder (APD). The moderating analyses showed a significant effect for ethnicity and marital status. CONCLUSIONS Our results shed light on the specific groups of adoptees at a higher risk of maladjustment. The outcomes most strongly influenced by adoptive status were angry emotions (hostility and anger), psychiatric care, drug abuse, and psychotic symptoms. These findings have clinical implications with regard to the support that practitioners can provide to adoptees and their families.

中文翻译：

---

成年收养者的心理调整：元分析。

背景 关于收养状态对成年期心理调整（例如，抑郁、焦虑、问题行为或药物滥用）的影响知之甚少。本研究的目的是进行荟萃分析，研究收养状态对成年收养者心理适应的影响。方法 该评价包括 1993 年至 2019 年间进行的 18 项准实验研究。结果 除了强迫症 (OCD) 和反社会人格障碍 (APD) 外，在所有结果中，收养者的心理适应能力明显低于非收养者。调节分析显示了对种族和婚姻状况的显着影响。结论 我们的结果阐明了处于适应不良风险较高的特定收养者群体。受收养状态影响最大的结果是愤怒情绪（敌意和愤怒）、精神科护理、药物滥用和精神病症状。这些发现对于从业者可以为被收养者及其家人提供的支持具有临床意义。