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PubMed1996

Early and later adoptions have different long-term effects on male rat offspring.

Both prenatal and postnatal environmental factors exert complex influences on the development of an organism. Previous studies have demonstrated that intervening events during the prenatal period can have different and even opposite effects than similar intervening events occurring in the postnatal period. We have reported previously that early postnatal adoption prevents prenatal stress-induced long-term impairments in glucocorticoid feedback. To characterize further the effects of adoptions during the postnatal period, adoptions have been performed at different times, and the effect on the postnatal ontogeny of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis has been investigated. Adoptions were performed during the first hour after birth (A1) and on the fifth (A5) and twelfth (A12) days after birth. At each of these times, other litters (S1, S5, S12) underwent a "separation" controlling for the 1 min maternal separation necessary for the adoptions. Locomotor behavior, cognition, and stress-induced corticosterone secretion in the adult male offspring have been examined, along with maternal behavior. Early adoption (A1) was found to prevent the prolonged stress-induced secretion of corticosterone evident in early separated (S1) offspring. Similarly, A1 rats demonstrated lower novelty-induced locomotion and improved recognition performance in a Y-maze compared to S1 offspring. However, later adoption (A5, A12) prolonged stress-induced corticosterone secretion, increased the locomotor response to novelty, and disrupted cognitive performance in the offspring. Only the early adoption increased maternal licking behavior, a factor that may have a protective effect on the pups. Taken together, these results suggest that the same postnatal manipulation realized at different times can induce different, or even opposite, effects on the behavioral and neuroendocrine characteristics of the adult offspring.

Aging↗
PubMed1998

Resource dependence and institutional elements in nursing home TQM adoption.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the contextual attributes that influence nursing home TQM adoption, as informed by resource dependence and institutional theories. DATA SOURCES: A survey of licensed nursing home administrators in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania during 1994-1995, the Medicare and Medicaid Annual Certification Survey (MMACS) data file, and the Area Resource File (ARF). STUDY DESIGN: Because the dependent variable (TQM adoption vs. non-adoption) is dichotomous, the model was estimated using logistic regression. DATA COLLECTION: Of the 615 facilities that were mailed surveys, 241 (39.2%) returned completed questionnaires. No significant differences were observed between respondents and nonrespondents in size, for-profit status, system membership, registered nurse staffing, cited licensure deficiencies, Medicare census, or Medicaid census. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Perceived competition, Medicare's share of total hospital discharges in the market, and facility Medicare census were significant predictors of TQM adoption. CONCLUSIONS: Our results provide limited support for the association between some rational adaptive and institutional factors and TQM adoption in nursing homes. Perceived competition and the influence of the Medicare program both at the facility and the market level are associated with TQM adoption. However, other factors associated with TQM adoption in other industries, such as size, are not associated with TQM adoption in the nursing homes in this study.

Aged↗
PubMed1996

Assessing the role of genetics in crime using adoption cohorts.

The role of genetics in criminal behaviour can be assessed through family, twin and adoption studies. This paper discusses the major findings of adoption studies that have focused on criminal outcome. Results from adoption studies have consistently revealed a relationship between biological parent criminal behaviour and adoptee criminal outcome. This finding has been noted in the case of property crime, but not in the case of violent crime. Violent crime in adopted-away offspring is not related to violent crime in biological parents. Findings from the Danish Adoption Cohort suggest that violent crime may be genetically related to other types of behavioural deviance. In the Danish Adoption Cohort, there is an increased rate of schizophrenia in the adopted-away offspring of biological fathers who are convicted of violent crimes. This father violence-adoptee schizophrenia relationship cannot be accounted for by the potential confounding factors of rearing social status, age at transfer, knowledge of family history of crime, or biological parents' mental illness.

Adoption↗
PubMed2001

Influence of genes and family environment on adult smoking behavior assessed in an adoption study.

Twin studies suggest that genetic factors influence smoking behavior. However, in these studies, genetic and environmental influences may be confounded. We examined whether smoking behavior of adoptees is associated with smoking behavior in adoptive and biological relatives in a design in which this confounding is minimized. Data on smoking status were collected using a mailed questionnaire in a sample of 840 adoptive families from the Danish Adoption Register including all non-familial adoptions from 1924 through 1947. Smoking data were available for 706 adoptees, 451 biological fathers, 580 biological mothers, 641 adoptive fathers, 693 adoptive mothers, 199 biological full-siblings, 684 maternal half-siblings, and 576 paternal half-siblings. Adoptees' status as ever, current, heavy, or former (ex-)smokers was related to their relatives' smoking status. Adoptees ever smoking was associated with their full-siblings' status as ever smokers (OR = 3.6 [1.5-8.7]). Adoptees' current smoking was also associated with their full-siblings' ever (OR = 3.2 [1.5-7.7]) and current (OR = 2.6 [1.3-5.0]) smoking, whereas adoptees' heavy smoking was associated with their full-siblings ever (OR = 5.5 [2.1-14.3]), current (OR = 4.0[1.9-8.6]) and heavy (OR = 2.0[1.0-4.2]) smoking. Compared with current smokers, adoptee ex-smokers had full-siblings who were ex-smokers more often (OR = 3.5 [1.0-11.6]), current (OR = 0.4 [0.2-0.8]), and heavy (OR = 0.3 [0.1-0.9]) smokers less often. Adoptees' smoking behavior was not associated with adoptive or biological parents' status as current smokers. This study of smoking behavior in adult adoptees and their biological and adoptee family supports the finding in twin studies of a genetic influence on smoking within the same generation.

Adoption↗
PubMed1975

Children's resemblance to their biological and adopting parents in two ethnic groups.

This study tested the hypothesis that adopted children's individual IQs are more related to the individual social status ranks of their biological parents than to those of their adopting parents. Data from 20 Mexican-American and 21 white biological and adopting families in which the IQ score of the adopted child was available show that (1) there was no significant selective placement of these children in adopting homes, (2) there was no significant correlation between the midparent social-education rank of the adopting parents and their adopted children's IQ, and (3) there was a strong correlation between the midparent social-education rank of the biological parents and their children's individual intelligence ranks.

Adoption↗
PubMed1992

An adoption and a cross-fostering study of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) Psychopathic Deviate Scale.

The first of two complementary studies compared biological and adoptive parents of teenage adoptees with either higher (n = 21) or low (n = 51) MMPI Psychopathic Deviate (Pd) scale scores. In comparison to biological mothers of the low-Pd adoptees, biological mothers of the high-Pd adoptees obtained significantly higher MMPI scores on six of eight clinical scales. Fewer differences existed between the corresponding groups of adoptive mothers, but adoptive mothers of the high Pd's did obtain significantly higher scores on the Pd and Hypomania scales. Substantial genetic correspondences also existed for Harris-Lingoes content subscales, with fewer correspondences between adoptees and their adoptive mothers. There were indications that adoptive mothers of the high-Pd children had personality traits which may have made them less effective in attenuating early signs of antisocial behavior. The second study employed a cross-fostering design dividing all biological and adoptive mothers (n = 138 each) by their respective median Pd raw scores to examine effects on offspring. Results confirmed the effect of biological mother Pd score, but only a trend suggested an adoptive mother effect, with no hint of an interaction.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Genetic and environmental influences on age at sexual initiation in the Colorado Adoption Project.

Whereas the majority of research on adolescent sexual initiation has focused solely on environmental factors, the present study used behavioral genetic analyses to investigate the relative contributions of genetic and environmental influences. Structural equation models were fitted to data from adoptive and non-adoptive sibling pairs (231 biologically related pairs and 169 unrelated pairs) from the Colorado Adoption Project. Information from censored individuals who had not yet experienced sexual initiation was maximized by adapting the twin survival analysis method of Pickles et al. (Behav Genet 24(5):457-468, 1994) to accommodate adoptive and non-adoptive siblings. Point estimates of variance components from an ACE model, including additive genetic (A), shared environmental (C), and non-shared environmental (E) influences were 28%, 24%, and 48%, respectively. Despite the lower point estimate for shared environmental effects than additive genetic effects, a CE model provided the best fit to the data. However, because adoptive siblings provide a direct estimate of shared environmental influences there is greater power to detect shared environmental effects in adoption designs. Evidence for genetic influences from our data were somewhat lower than those obtained in previous twin studies, possibly reflecting a return to more socially conservative sexual attitudes, changing sexual behaviors, or ambiguities in the wording of questions commonly used in research on adolescent sexuality.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Immunization status of internationally adopted children in Italy.

An increasing number of internationally adopted children is coming to Italy, and their immunization status is unknown. We evaluated the immunization status of such children in Palermo, Italy. We searched for the presence of a BCG scar in 88 children, 49 boys and 39 girls (mean age 76+/-32 months), most of whom (98%) came from Eastern Europe. Presence of BCG scar was observed in 59 (67.1%) of them, included five children without any pre-adoptive medical records. Twenty-three out of 29 children without any evidence of BCG scar were tested by Mantoux. Seven (30.4%) of 23 were tuberculin positive and diagnosed as having latent tuberculosis infection. We also examined immunization status against poliovirus 1-3, tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis, measles, mumps, rubella and hepatitis B of 70 internationally adopted children and we compared it with the pre-adoptive immunization records of their birth country. Protective titers (>1:8) against poliovirus 1-3, were found respectively in 67.1%, 91.4%, 42.8% of 70 immunized children, and only 38.5% of them had at the same time full protection against all three types of poliovirus. Protective titers against tetanus and diphtheria were found in 91.4% and 95.7% of 70 vaccinated children. Presence of antibodies against pertussis, measles, mumps and rubella was observed respectively in 16 (32.6%) of 49, 40 (62.5%) of 64, 28 (56%) of 50 and 24 (85.7%) of 28 children who had received the vaccine. As regards hepatitis B, only 20 of 29 vaccinated children had detectable hepatitis B surface antibodies, while four of 29 vaccinated and two of 41 not vaccinated children were positive for both hepatitis B surface antibodies and hepatitis B core antibodies. Finally three of 41 not vaccinated children were both hepatitis B surface antigen and hepatitis B core antibodies positive. No relation was found between health status and immunization and between age and antibody positiveness of vaccinated children except for hepatitis B, therefore the youngest immunized children were more likely to be hepatitis B surface antibodies positive. Our data suggest that internationally adopted children should be tested for their immunization status on arrival in the adopting country, because they are not protected in a sufficient way against vaccine-preventable diseases and their pre-adoptive immunization records sometimes are lacking and frequently are scarcely reliable.

Adoption↗
PubMed2004

Interaction of genetic risk and adoptive parent communication deviance: longitudinal prediction of adoptee psychiatric disorders.

BACKGROUND: In the Finnish Adoptive Family Study of Schizophrenia, adoptee thinking disorders have been shown to be a joint effect of genetic liability for schizophrenia spectrum disorders and adoptive rearing-parent communication patterns. However, longitudinal predictions of clinical psychiatric disorders of the adoptees have not been reported. METHOD: Adoptees (n = 109) who had no DSM-III-R disorder at initial assessment (median age 18 years) were selected from the total sample of the Finnish Adoption Study of Schizophrenia. They were defined as at high versus low genetic risk based upon the lifetime diagnoses of their biological, adopting-away mothers - schizophrenia spectrum disorder versus no spectrum disorder. At initial assessment, adoptive rearing parents were independently evaluated from tape-recorded Rorschach protocols scored as manifesting either high or low Communication Deviance (CD), a composite index of communication patterns that distract and befuddle listeners. Adoptees were independently re-diagnosed after a median interval of 14 years and followed-up from national registers for an additional 7 years. RESULTS: The main effects of genetic liability (G) and CD of the adoptive parents (E), each taken separately, predicted significantly for psychiatric disorders of the adoptees as adults. However, when G, E, and their joint interaction effect were entered into the same logistic model, only the interaction effect was significant. The sample included seven adoptees with schizophrenia spectrum disorders, but a separate analysis to predict them was non-significant. CONCLUSION: Genetic liability for schizophrenia spectrum disorder and an adoptive family rearing variable interact, predicting longitudinally and significantly to broadly defined adoptee psychiatric disorder.

Adoption↗
PubMed2003

Developmental recovery and deficit in children adopted from Eastern European orphanages.

This research examined the degree of developmental recovery during the 1st year of placement in a sample of 124 children adopted from Eastern European orphanages. At the time of adoption, substantial growth and developmental delays were identified, with about half below the 5th percentile on weight and on height. Results indicated that there was considerable catch-up in all areas at postadoption. However, older, later placed children exhibited more developmental delays compared with earlier adopted children. Regression analysis revealed that the degree of developmental delay at the time of adoption, along with the duration of time spent in the adoptive home and age at adoption placement, predicted significant amounts of variance associated with developmental catch-up. In contrast, weight and height at time of adoption were not related to children's development postadoption.

Adoption↗
PubMed2004

Early and later adoptions differently modify mother-pup interactions.

Life events occurring during the perinatal period have strong long-term effects. In rats, prenatal stress, postnatal maternal separations, or adoptions at different periods are known to affect behavior and reactivity to stress in offspring. To determine the role of maternal factors on differential outcome adoptions, the authors investigated interactions between pups and the adopting mothers by assessing both pups' ultrasound emissions and maternal behavior. Early and late adoptions increased mother care at the moment of adoption and during mother-infant reunion after a separation procedure. However, although early adoption induced a decrease in pups' ultrasound emissions in response to a stressful separation, later adoptions enhanced it. Results suggest a sensitive period during which fostering may change pups' and dams' behavior.

Adoption↗
PubMed2005

Early language growth in children adopted from China: preliminary normative data.

Normative data on English language development in children adopted from China are needed to determine whether a child's language skills are within normal limits or significantly delayed relative to his or her peers who are other children adopted from China. A longitudinal survey of children adopted from China, modified from a similar survey used by Glennen and Masters (American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology 2002;11:417-433) with children adopted from Eastern Europe, was used to collect information on English language development from over 150 children at 3-month intervals. Preliminary results are presented here, based on 808 surveys from 141 children grouped by age at time of adoption. In general, children adopted at older ages used more words and produced longer sentences at each 3-month interval postadoption, but had further to go to "catch up" to norms for nonadopted monolingual English-speaking peers of the same age. Individual profiles illustrate the variation seen within groups, with some children performing at or above age level and others showing varying levels of "delay" relative to nonadopted monolingual English-speaking peers and/or adopted peers.

Adoption↗
PubMed1999

How can we boost IQs of "dull children"?: A late adoption study.

From 5,003 files of adopted children, 65 deprived children, defined as abused and/or neglected during infancy, were strictly selected with particular reference to two criteria: (i) They were adopted between 4 and 6 years of age, and (ii) they had an IQ <86 (mean = 77, SD = 6.3) before adoption. The average IQs of adopted children in lower and higher socioeconomic status (SES) families were 85 (SD = 17) and 98 (SD = 14.6), respectively, at adolescence (mean age = 13.5 years). The results show (i) a significant gain in IQ dependent on the SES of the adoptive families (mean = 7.7 and mean = 19.5 IQ points in low and high SES, respectively), (ii) IQs after adoption are significantly correlated with IQs before adoption, and (iii) during adolescence, verbal IQs are significantly lower than performance IQs.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Cognitive and neuropsychological functioning in transnationally adopted juvenile delinquents.

AIM: To evaluate cognitive and neuropsychological abilities of adopted delinquent adolescents in institutional care. METHODS: Transnationally adopted adolescents admitted to institutional care (n = 20) and non-delinquent controls who were also transnationally adopted (n = 21) were compared concerning the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children and Adults (WISC and WAIS), the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and the Tower of London test (TOL). The adoptive parents answered questions about the adoption, early childhood and family circumstances by a questionnaire sent by mail. RESULTS: The adopted delinquents had a significantly lower IQ and significantly lower results on several other measurements in the WISC/WAIS compared to the controls even after adjustment for age of arrival in the adoptive home. Both groups of adoptees scored low in the WISC/WAIS subscale of arithmetics when compared to the population mean. The TOL test showed that the delinquents were slower and made more errors than the controls. CONCLUSION: The delinquent adoptees scored significantly lower on many variables in the WISC/WAIS. Both delinquent and non-delinquent adoptees had some difficulties with arithmetic. The weak performances in arithmetics might point to some weaknesses in the neuropsychological domain. These results probably have complex explanatory causes and need to be further evaluated.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Problem behavior of internationally adopted adolescents: a review and meta-analysis.

In this paper we examine the prevalence of problem behaviors in samples of adolescents who were adopted from a foreign country as infants or young children. We reviewed ten studies and performed a meta-analysis, comparing 2317 internationally adopted adolescents with 14,345 nonadopted adolescents. Results indicate that internationally adopted adolescents exhibit more behavior problems than do nonadopted adolescents (d = 0.08; p = 0.02), with the difference seen in externalizing (d = 0.11; p = 0.00), but not in internalizing (d = 0.05; p = 0.12), behavior problems. Significantly more total behavior problems were seen in adopted than in nonadopted girls (d = 0.10; p = 0.03), but not in adopted boys compared to nonadopted ones (d = 0.07; p = 0.22). All differences, however, were small. The differences between adopted and nonadopted adolescents were somewhat larger when we considered behavior problems in the clinical range. The majority of the adopted adolescents are well adjusted and do not display significantly more problem behaviors than do their nonadopted peers.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Releasing pre-adoption birth records: the impact of Oregon's experience on its vital records department.

OBJECTIVE: In November 1998, Oregon voters passed Ballot Measure 58, which allowed Oregon adoptees > or = 21 years of age access to their original birth records, which are sealed at adoption. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of the measure on the Oregon Health Division (since renamed Oregon Health Services) by assessing procedures used and resources needed after implementation of Measure 58. METHODS: Vital records employees were interviewed about processing, storage, and archive retrieval procedures for pre-adoption birth records before, during, and after the implementation of Measure 58 and the effect on their usual workload. Personnel time, space, and fiscal resources used to process requests for pre-adoption records were also calculated. RESULTS: The Oregon Health Division began to receive requests from adoptees immediately following the passage of Measure 58 in November 1998, but due to legal challenges, they could not be processed until May 31, 2000. From June 2, 2000, through October 20, 2000, 12 staff members and two supervisors issued more than 4,700 pre-adoption birth records while also processing their normal workload, which averages more than 135,400 vital record orders annually. Due to the need for retrieval from archives, requests for pre-adoption birth records were estimated to take 75 hours to process vs. 2-3 minutes for standard requests. Each batch of approximately 75 pre-adoption birth records required approximately 12.5 person-hours from vital records staff and 3-4 person-hours from archive personnel; in addition, supervisors spent time responding to incomplete orders, informing the public and the media, and responding to concerns of adoptees, birth parents, and adoptive parents. Fewer than 1% of requests went unfilled. CONCLUSIONS: Implementation of Measure 58 utilized substantial resources of the Oregon Health Division. States contemplating similar legislation should consider increasing personnel and resources, preparing for intense public and media interest, and reorganizing the storage of adoptees' original birth records so they are easily retrieved.

Access to Information↗
PubMed2000

Adopted adolescents' overrepresentation in mental health counseling: adoptees' problems or parents' lower threshold for referral?

UNLABELLED: A larger proportion of adopted adolescents receive mental health counseling than do their nonadopted peers. Adoptees might have more problems that require counseling, or their adoptive parents might have a lower threshold for referral (or both). OBJECTIVE: To test the hypothesis that both the extent of adolescents' problems and their adoption status would predict whether adolescents received psychological counseling, after controlling for family demographic characteristics. METHOD: Two large data sets collected from 1994 through 1996 by the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) were used. In parallel analyses of the 2 data sets, hierarchical logistic regression models were implemented to assess the incremental effects of problem behaviors, family characteristics, and adoption status on adolescents receiving counseling. RESULTS: Selected adolescents' problems and family demographic characteristics were significant predictors for having received counseling, but, after controlling for these variables, adoptees were still about twice as likely as nonadoptees to have received counseling. CONCLUSIONS: Prevalence of problems, adoptive family characteristics, and adoption status must all be taken into account to understand why adoptees are more likely to receive counseling. Clinicians should be sensitive to issues that are especially salient in adoptive families.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Adoption as an offspring strategy to reduce ectoparasite exposure.

Adoption occurs frequently in colonial species where both the cost of parasitism and the opportunity for dependent young to find a foster family are typically high. Because ectoparasites show highly aggregated distributions among colony members, we tested two central predictions of the novel hypothesis that adoption is driven by selection on young to reduce ectoparasite load: first, that nest-based ectoparasites cause offspring to seek adoption, and second, that an individual's parasite load will be reduced after it has been adopted. In agreement with these predictions, experimentally infested Alpine swift Apus melba offspring sought adoption significantly more often and at an earlier stage than young kept free of ectoparasitic louse-flies. Second, the parasite load of experimentally infested young was reduced after adoption via a redistribution of ectoparasites among the foster family members. Our findings emphasize what we believe to be a novel role for parasites in the evolution of adoption and, by extension, in the emergence of social interactions.

Adoption↗