The relationship between severe early institutional deprivation and scholastic attainment at age 11 in 127 children (68 girls and 59 boys) adopted from institutions in Romania was compared to the ...attainment of 49 children (17 girls and 32 boys) adopted within the UK from a non-institutional background. Overall, children adopted from Romania had significantly lower attainment scores than those adopted within the UK; the children within the Romanian sample who had spent 6 months or more in an institution had significantly lower attainment scores than those who had spent less than 6 months in an institution, but there was no additional risk of low attainment associated with longer institutional care after 6 months. The lower scholastic attainment in the children adopted from Romanian institutions, as compared with domestic adoptees, was mediated by IQ, and to a lesser degree, inattention/overactivity. When these factors were taken into account, only small between-group differences in attainment remained.
People who adopted children from Romania between 1990 and 1992 experienced considerable difficulties arranging the adoptions, both in Romania and the UK. It is not known how many more potential ...adopters were unsuccessful. Based on a study of 148 families adopting 165 children, Celia Beckett, Diana Bredenkamp, Jenny Castle, Christine Groothues and the English and Romanian Adoptees (ERA) study team shed light on the difficulties encountered in England and implications of agency and non-agency practice in relation to these adopters.
The placements are progressing well, but there is some evidence that those applicants who were approved by specialist local authority social workers have a more sustained sense of the importance for the child of issues concerning their background and identity.
In many ways, within-country infant adoptions are becoming a thing of the past. However, several factors arising from this study of social and cognitive progress in children adopted as babies may be ...equally salient for older-placed children, especially in middle childhood and early adolescence. From a sample of 52 children in the same number of families, placed before the age of six months, Jenny Castle, Celia Beckett, Christine Groothues and the English and Romanian Adoptees (ERA) study team looked at outcomes such as adoptive parents' marital and emotional adjustment, evaluation of the adoption and children's cognitive attain-ment in two phases — at age four and six years. Overall, the study confirmed earlier research to suggest that infant adoptions tend to lead to very good social and intellectual progress in children, as well as high parental satisfaction.
Following on from their article, ‘Infant adoption in England: a longitudinal account of social and cognitive progress' (Adoption & Fostering 24:3, 2000), Jenny Castle, Celia Beckett, Christine ...Groothues and the English and Romanian Adoptees (ERA) study team focus attention on the same group in relation to the policies and practices of social services and voluntary adoption agencies at placement. From interviews with adoptive mothers of a sample of 52 infants, placed between 1989 and 1991, they examine differences between the two sectors regarding issues such as contact, links with family background, openness and post-placement support. The authors also report on adoptive parents' opinions about the provision of pre- and post-adoption services. They conclude that co-operation between social services and voluntary adoption agencies could improve both services.
