Attention Deficit

Families in the United States adopt many children every year. In fact, the US has more than 1.5 million adopted children under age 18 currently. Government statistics indicate that number is likely to increase by as much as 100,000 every year.

Many factors contribute to a parent giving up a child for adoption.  Often, these factors are not presented to adopting parents.  Adopting parents suspect that incidents that occurred prior to the adoption may contribute future problems with the child. These factors may include abuse, in utero substance abuse by the mother, or genetic problems.

A pioneering study performed by Margaret Keyes, et al, a University of Minnesota research psychologist [Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.2008;162(5):419-425], found that the vast majority of adopted kids are psychologically healthy though they were twice as likely to be diagnosed for ADHD.

"We found that most of the adolescents — adopted and non-adopted — were overwhelmingly psychologically healthy," Keyes says.

Keyes’ research team conducted in-depth psychological interviews of 692 adolescents who had been adopted before age 2. Most of the test subjects averaged 15 years of age. Keyes’ control group consisted of teenagers raised by their biological parents. Keyes found that about 7% of the teenagers raised by biological parents had been diagnosed with ADHD while 14% - 15% of adopted teens were diagnosed with ADHD.

The researchers did not find increased risk for depression, anxiety or a form of serious aggression among adopted children. Provocatively, US adoptees consistently presented more extreme externalized behavior problems like ADHD than international adoptees on every quantitative indicator the team used.