Effects of Adoption on Mental Health Status
In the United States alone there are an average of 428,000 children in foster care, and only 135,00 get adopted each year. These children typically wait around three years to be adopted. This can have detrimental effects on the child's mental health. Feeling unwanted is something that can be detrimental to anyones mental health status. These children waiting 3 years to be adopted is increasing their risk of mental health issues drastically.[1]
Why are so many children in foster care?[edit]
There are large numbers of children in foster care due to abuse and neglect from their birth parents. When a child is abused they don't understand why their parents, that are supposed to love them could be the ones hurting them. This impacts their mental health in a negative way. These children feel unwanted, and unloved. Feelings of loneliness can lead these children to suffer from depression and anxiety disorders.
Along with these issues[edit]
Loss and grief[edit]
Feelings of Loss and Grief are not things that one experiences only when someone passes. These feelings can occur when you are separated from family, friends, or similar instances. When children are taken away from their birth parents this can result in these feelings. When they are around their birth parents enough to love them, and consider them their primary caregiver, experiencing these feelings is very common. These feelings are not only felt for being separated from the parents; they can occur when separated from siblings, grandparents, or even close friends. When placed in foster care, these children experience these feelings on magnified levels, and we need to provide them with the resources necessary to cope.[2]
Identify Development[edit]
This is something that will happen often when children are put up for adoption. Children will have a hard time understanding why they were not wanted by their parents. While this may not always be the case, they will still wonder why they were unwanted and why they can't be with their birth parents. In some cases, the adoptive parents may be very different from the child's birth parents'. This is confusing for the child when they are trying to discover who they are. They will ask themselves who they are more like. The struggle and differing of personalities can be very confusing for a child trying to discover who they are.[2]
Self-esteem[edit]
Low self-esteem is also an issue with children in foster care. The adoptee can feel low self-worth, and feel that they are not valued as an individual. This can result from the constant moving from home to home, and parents to parents. Not having the steady home-life that other children their age may have, can have a significant impact on the mental status of children in foster care.[2]
Other mental health issues that are more prominent in adopted children are Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder(ADHD), and Oppositional defiant disorder(ODD), major depressive disorder, and separation anxiety disorder. These disorders are two times more likely to be found in all adopted individuals.[3]
Besides Mental health issues, we are setting up these individuals to be homeless. Once the children in foster care turn 18 years of age, they are emancipated. This means that they are their own guardian and are now responsible for themselves. If a child was moved around from foster home to foster home, and never adopted; how are we expecting them to know how to survive alone in the real world? There were approximately 23,439 children in foster care that turned 18 years old and were emancipated in 2012. Studies show that 1 in every 5 children will remain homeless after being released from foster care.[4]
References[edit]
- ↑ Adoption Statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved February 23, 2018, from https://adoptionnetwork.com/adoption-statistics
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 C. (n.d.). Impact of Adoption on Adopted Persons. Retrieved 2013.
- ↑ "Adoption and Mental Illness | Psychiatric Times". www.psychiatrictimes.com. Retrieved 2018-02-24.
- ↑ A. (n.d.). We are abandoning children in foster care. Retrieved February 23, 2018, from https://davethomasfoundation.org/rita/we-are-abandoning-children-in-foster-care/
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