Adopted Children Ils 123

Alexina M McWhinnie

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781136246692
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

First published in 1967. Part of the International Library of Sociology collection, this is a study on 'Adopted Children' a volume of the Sociology of Gender and the Family subject area. A pioneering study in its time, this volume looks at how adopted children adjust as adults using a sample of 58 cases

Chapter One

PREVIOUS RESEARCH STUDIES IN RELATION TO THE PRESENT RESEARCH PROJECT

TO avoid confusion it seems advisable to make clear what was meant in this research project by adoption. It is defined as follows in the Horsburgh Report of 1937:

. . . the essence of an adoption, whether legalised or de facto, seems to us to lie in the creation of an artificial family relationship analogous to that of parent and child, or sonship, which is accepted by all parties as permanent. The child is absorbed into the family of the adopters and is treated as if it were their own natural child.¹

What I wish to give emphasis to is the type of adoption where, first, the creation of the new family relationship is an artificial one, and secondly, there is intervention by another person to change the natural relationship of the child with its parent to this artificial one. This does not happen to the same extent where a mother or grandmother adopts a child already born and accepted within the immediate family constellation. In such a situation, there is no intervention by an outside party. The point at issue is that adoption, as an active social service provided by social workers and other professional people, is mainly that situation where a child is placed into a family where neither of its adoptive parents is a biological parent and where in most cases they are not in fact biologically related in any way. Research is certainly needed into how successful is the outcome of the cases where biological mothers and their husbands adopt, or where grandparents adopt. Social workers are concerned in this too since they may facilitate such arrangements. That, however, is a subject for research outside the scope of the present study.

An examination of the literature in this field of adoption and in the allied one of fostering yielded a total of six previous relevant research studies, of which three had been carried out in the United States and three in Great Britain. There had been other studies of fostered and adopted children as well as the six quoted here but the aim in these other studies was to assess the relative weights of nature and nurture rather than the success or failure of adoption or fostering, or the problems within the adoption situation itself. These are detailed in notes 17, 18, 19 and 20 to Chapter Two. Since the completion of this study the findings of several other research projects have become available. Any relevant findings or conclusions are referred to in appropriate chapters of this book.²

The two early American publications, Theis³ (1924) and Healy et al.⁴ (1929) deal mainly with fostering arrangements. In Theis's study, 910 foster-children were followed up when they were aged 18 to 40, and an assessment made of their ‘community value’ in which objective tests, such as self-support, law observance and response to educational opportunity were used. Although originally it had been planned to make a comparative study with children raised in an institution or with children in general, this proved impossible. Statistics were used to present the results although the assessments were made qualitatively. Of these adopted, 269 of the 910, there was a very high proportion classed as ‘capable’. This, combined with the finding of a better adjustment amongst children placed under 5 than amongst those placed over 5, led to the conclusion that adoption, together with early placement, gave better results for the child.

This study also suggested that the relationship between foster-parents and child was more important for the ultimate outcome than the type of foster-home. The assessment of foster-homes into ‘types’ was done on the basis of social class, work, intelligence, material surroundings, etc. It must be remembered that the date of this study is 1924 and that social work at that time in the United States looked to overt behaviour and adherence to community norms as its criteria. There is, however, already in this study the implication that these are less important for ultimate success than the personal relationship between foster or adoptive parents and the child.

Healy's study of the placement of 501 delinquents in foster-homes revealed, as did that of Theis, a high proportion of successful adjustments. He concluded that delinquency of any kind may cease under good conditions of placement and added the interesting comment that it was as important to understand the foster-parents as to understand the child. There was need he said for more insight into personality make-up.

The most recent systematic study from the United States was by Michaels and Brenner, A Follow-up Study of Adoptive Families (1951). It is worth quoting in some length from this study as it dealt, in a way no other research had done, with the intimate inter-personal relationships in the adoption situation, and it emphasised factors which can be paralleled in the results of the present research. The aims of this study were given as three-fold: first, to reassess the families into which this particular Jewish adoption society had placed children, several years after placement, and to see how successfully the child had been ‘assimilated’; secondly, to improve the methods of prediction of the child's development (Intelligence tests had been used prior to placement); thirdly, to improve, if possible, the method of home study and of placement. Successful placement was rated with reference to the marital adjustment of the adoptive parents and to the relationship of the parents to the child. Evaluation was made through the parents’ attitude and behaviour. The behaviour of the child was excluded. The number of cases studied was 50.

The limitations of the study were given as follows:

First, the sample of 50 was chosen for geographical reasons from 90 cases which were handled by this society from 1941 to 1945. It was not, then, a random sample of all cases. Fifty in itself was considered too small for emphatic conclusions. Secondly, the small number, 6, which were assessed to be unsuccessful meant that analysis and sub-grouping here was of no value. Thirdly, the authors comment that it is easier to assess a situation after the event than to predict in advance how successful a particular adoption placement will be. Fourthly, there had been a change in the agency's policy during the period that these adoption placements were made. It had become customary to ask for more information regarding the sterility of prospective adopters as from about 1942. Fifthly, the age of the children was mainly pre-school. The oldest was under 7. Finally, the behaviour of the child was, by definition of ‘successful’, excluded.

A placement was considered successful where it was found that, first, there was a good marriage relationship, and secondly that there were realistic standards and no undue pressure on the child. Together with this an affectionate relationship and an admiring attitude on the part of the parents were further criteria, but these qualities had to be such as were not lacking in judgement. Other indications of success were that the parents were easy and relaxed and for the most part enjoying the child, that they were mild in discipline, and finally that they were giving the child freedom to experiment and to take risks.

With these criteria and with the accepted limitations in mind, there is still much of interest in the main conclusions of this study. A comparison was made of the age of the adoptive parents at placement and the success of placement. No significant connection was found. When length of marriage at placement and success were compared, it was found that couples, no older, but married longer seemed to give a high proportion of the most successful placements. This was also related to the reasons for the couples’ inability to have children. The suggestion was that those couples who had been married longer were more able to accept infertility, especially where there was no organic cause. It was found, also, that it was advisable to take time to evaluate a couple who were asking for a baby immediately to replace one they had lost. A comparison of education and outcome of placement led to the impression that it was dangerous to assume that the better educated would provide a richer home emotionally. The same applied with regard to higher income.

With regard to intellectual status, it was found that exact prediction was impossible. The policy had been to consider the possible intellectual capacity of the baby in terms of its background, infant development and infant psychological tests (Catell) and to match this with the adoptive family's background, education, and so on. It was found, however, that prediction based on intelligence testing gave 50 % accuracy on follow-up, whilst assessment by the child's family background also gave 50% accuracy. The individual children, however, accurately assessed by these two methods were different. Michaels and Brenner concluded that, as improvements in prediction are very hypothetical, the implication of this for adoption workers is to choose parents who would not be primarily concerned with the ultimate intellectual status of the child. It was found that it was easier for adoptive parents to relate to the child who was less intelligent if the child were a girl, rather than a boy.

When physical appearance was considered, it was found to be of general advantage for the child to bear some resemblance to its adoptive parents, but this was not stressed. The pathology in each child's background had been assessed by medical and psychiatric consultants before a decision on adoption had been reached. Where adoption was decided upon, the details of any pathology were given to the adoptive parents. It was not found possible to estimate whether the knowledge of such constitutional factors added to the tensions or not.

The question of telling the child that he was adopted was also examined. The agency policy throughout had been to discuss this with the parents and to advise them to tell the child that he was adopted or chosen, and that other parents had borne him. Investigation showed, however, that the adoption workers had tended to over-simplify this situation. They had not realised the emotional problem inherent in it for the adopters. It was found, on follow-up, that eight couples had been unable to mention the fact of adoption to the child. Fifteen had told the child he was adopted or chosen but had given no further elaboration. Twenty-four had told the child he was adopted or chosen but had connected this in some way to the fact that he was born to others. Eleven of these twenty-four had also answered questions as to the child's own parents and what had happened to them.

It was pointed out that the adoption workers, as well as not realising the emotional problem for adopters in telling the child, tend to over-simplify the whole adoption situation. They commonly think of the relationship as exactly like the usual parent-child relationship and without specific problems. The writers commented that there is no body of information from adopted adults to draw from with regard to this.

The studies which have been made in Great Britain are superficial and limited in comparison with the last mentioned. The first was published in 1953 in the British Journal of Psychiatric Social Work, a study done by Shaw, ‘Following-up Adoptions’.⁵ This investigation was confined to a special group; those who had announced in the Quaker Journal the fact that they had adopted a child. A simple questionnaire was sent to 101 such families. Out of these, 68 were eventually available for follow-up. Of these, 55 were visited, but, because of distance, fuller details were obtained from the remaining 13 by letter.

Shaw admitted that these 68 families were a biased group, and that this was so for the following reasons: all had announced the fact of adoption; all were volunteers, refusals being excluded; the group was homogeneous in so far as social class, economic status and religious faith were concerned. At the time of the study (1951) there were 90 adopted children in these 68 families. The age of the children at follow-up ranged from a few months to 24 years. In the published paper only satisfactory adoptions were discussed, and the main findings were stated tentatively. Some of these are quoted below.

There appeared to be a slight advantage when the child was adopted to complete rather than to create a family. There was evidence that having an adopted child made it possible for some couples to conceive a child of their own. The study showed that those parents who had insight into their own feelings were more able to make a good relationship with the child.

Nearly one third had obtained the children through an adoption society. One third of these were dissatisfied with the arrangements made by the adoption society. Many had found difficulty in getting all the information they wanted from the society about the child's background. By contrast, those who had obtained the children through third party or direct placements had more information given to them about the child's background.

Those children who turned out to be not so intelligent proved in general to be a disappointment to the parents, but this did not necessarily preclude a satisfactory emotional bond between the parents and child. Great emphasis, however, was laid by adopters on the matching of background to avoid this disappointment. Relatives of the adopters were, on the whole, cooperative. Not quite 10% of the children were legitimate. Telling the child that he was adopted was found to be a problem to the parents. Almost all the parents recognised that the adopted child was always an adopted child. It was felt that this enabled them to forget rather than to deny it.

The second British study, A Survey based on Adoption Case Records, was undertaken and published in 1956 by the National Association for Mental Health. This survey was based partly on the records of five adoption societies and partly on the case records of adopted children from two child guidance clinics.

The first section of this study shows how very difficult it is to do other than superficial research from case records which have not been compiled with a view to specific evaluation by a research worker. Often vital information is not recorded. The sample used was admitted to have severe limitations. It was not a random sample, for it included only cases where adoptive parents voluntarily kept in touch with the society, or where they answered a special follow-up letter. In spite of this implied bias, however, the sample was analysed statistically in an attempt to assess significant correlations. When this was done, three factors were found to affect the chances of success significantly. First... ‘if a child has experienced more than one change of home before being placed, the chances of a successful adoption are reduced’.⁶ However, it was realised that since there was a correlation between the age of the child at placement and the number of previous moves, age itself might prove here to be a further factor. Secondly, ‘the chances of adoption success are reduced where there is a difference of more than one category between the work status⁷ of the child's natural parents and that of the adopters. This factor appears to be operative even where the child was adopted in infancy and therefore the problem does not seem to be merely one of adjustment to different social standards. Nor was there any evidence to suggest that adopters in the higher work status groups produced a greater proportion of the total problem cases than other adopters.’⁸ Finally, ‘where the adopted child is the only one in the adopters’ home the chances of a successful adoption are usually greater than where there are other children’.⁹

The weakness of this study and of using statistical correlation technique is that vital qualitative and intervening factors may be ignored. As Moser wrote ‘one can never be certain than an observed statistical association between two variables is not due to . . . uncontrolled (and perhaps even unsuspected) variables’.¹⁰ This weakness was acknowledged by the authors.

Another similar attempt at assessing the proportion of successes and failures in adoption was made by Edwards¹¹ and published in the journal Case Conference. Again the weakness lies in simply choosing two sets of factors, in this case age of child at placement and age of parents at placement, and relating both of these to adjustment. A general conclusion was drawn that the risk of unhappiness in adoption rises more steeply with the age of the child than with the age of the adopters. It seems, however, conceivable that it is the adopters who chose to adopt the child when already past the time-consuming stages of infancy who make the least good parents. Edwards’ study in no way gives a total picture of each adoption situation and so such possibly intervening factors are again ignored. Conclusions drawn from such a study may not only be superficial but entirely erroneous.

This survey of the research on adoption previously undertaken indicates some of the methodological problems of research into the efficacy of child care provisions. It also shows that it is a field almost completely uncharted. The three studies quoted from Great Britain illustrate the tendency to view research in this country quantitatively, the aim being to arrive at a statistical assessment of how many adoptions are successful and how many are unsuccessful, and, if possible, but rather incidentally, why some succeed and some fail. The other question which is constantly asked is how does adoption compare with other solutions for the child otherwise deprived of a normal home life. The ideal research project then is often seen as a large scale follow-up survey with matched control groups for comparison of success and failure as between alternative solutions for the child, or as compared with a group of children brought up by their own parents. This is the kind of comparative study which Theis had in mind in 1924 and which she abandoned as impossible in practice. Quite apart however from the practicability of such a project, it would seem to be inadvisable at this stage in our knowledge. It would be like planning an elaborate laboratory experiment in botany before anyone had d...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Foreword by Eileen Younghusband, D.B.E
• CONTENTS
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 PREVIOUS RESEARCH STUDIES IN RELATION TO THE PRESENT RESEARCH PROJECT
• 2 METHOD OF RESEARCH USED IN THIS STUDY
• 3 DESCRIPTION OF HISTORIES
• 4 ANALYSIS OF HISTORIES AND OF ADOPTION SITUATION
• 5 CONCLUSIONS
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Appendix: Annual Figures of Legalised Adoptions in England and Scotland
• Index