Journal
DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
Volume 53, Issue 11, Pages 2195-2204Publisher
AMER PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOC
DOI: 10.1037/dev0000352
Keywords
identity; adoption; emerging adulthood; adjustment; person-centered
Categories
Funding
- William T. Grant Foundation
- National Institute of Child Health and Human Development [R01 HD049859]
- National Science Foundation
- Rudd Family Foundation Chair in Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Adopted persons face special challenges in the development of identity, as aspects of their histories may be unknown, making it difficult to construct a coherent narrative linking past, present, and future. Extensive literature on adjustment outcomes for adopted persons indicates an elevated risk for adjustment problems. In this study, a low-risk sample of adopted youth is involved to examine, longitudinally, connections between adoptive identity and adjustment. Participants included 145 adopted youth who participated in Waves 2 (W2: adolescence: mean age = 15.7) and 3 (W3: emerging adulthood: mean age = 25.0) of a longitudinal study with a nationwide sample. Children were placed with same-race adoptive families (over 95% White) as infants through domestic private adoption agencies in the U.S. Internalizing and externalizing behaviors were assessed by the Youth Self Report (W2) and the Adult Self Report (W3). Adoptive identity was assessed by ratings of 6 dimensions coded from interviews which, using cluster analysis, revealed 4 adoptive identity subgroups: unexamined, limited, unsettled, and integrated. Factorial ANCOVA examined mean differences in W3 internalizing problems across identity clusters while controlling for W2 internalizing. The main effect for adoptive identity cluster was significant: F(3, 840.72) = 3.724, p = .011. Adopted adolescents in the unsettled group had significantly higher levels of internalizing problems in emerging adulthood than persons in the unexamined and limited categories. A similar ANCOVA for W3 externalizing behavior was not significant. Identity profiles high in negative affect may be at particular risk of increased levels of internalizing problems.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available