“Behavior Problems and Mental Health Referrals of International Adoptees” can be purchased through The Journal of The American Medical Association.
By and large, children who are adopted from overseas show only modest rates of behavior problems and are well adjusted, according to a report in the May 25 edition of The Journal of the American Medical Association.
Conducted by researchers at the Center for Child and Family Studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands, the study covered more than 50 years of international data. More than 40,000 children a year move between more than 100 countries through adoptions, according to the report.
According to the research, most international adoptees are referred to mental-health services more often than nonadopted children. But, it adds, the international adoptees present fewer behavior problems and are less often referred to mental-health services than domestic adoptees.