Effects of Adoption on Adolescent - Research Paper Example

Effects of Adoption on Adolescent al Affiliation Recent changes in the structure of contemporary family haveled social experts to pay more attention to the rapidly increasing complexity of family structures such as, surrogated parents, step-families, and adoptive families. The present paper examines the various effects of adoption on adolescent. The paper argues that with the growing age, adopted children begin to experience grief, loss, anger, frustration, feeling of isolation, and low self-esteem and low confidence as they begin to aware about their adoption status. Compare to normal adolescents, adopted adolescents find it more difficult to deal with identity issues. Healthy parent-child relation can prove helpful for adoptive children to recover from negative feelings; on the other hand, weak relation can prove problematic and further trigger various emotional issues and physiological disorders among adopted teenagers. In order to prove the thesis of paper various reliable sources, such as Child Welfare Information Gateway, New Leaf Academy, and International Adoption Help and scholarly journals, such as Journal of Marriage and the Family and Interpersona are used. Effects of Adoption on Adolescent The adoption of children has become the topic of growing social interest in recent years. The dire poverty and growing number of war-torn places in third world countries have caused the rapid increase in number of orphans. Adoption of children is a complex process. Numerous studies have found varying effects of adoption on overall development of children (Reppold et al., 2010, p. 2-3). Adolescence is a crucial period of life for both children and their families. The physical features of adolescence like, voice mutation for boys, breast development for girls, and a fast growth, begin to visible and occur quickly, on the other hand, emotional and mental development can take years. During this period of life, teenagers begin to think seriously about their life, career goals, and try to establish own identity (Bernal, 2003, p. 2). Adoption adds further complexity to the usual developmental process of adolescence, even if they were adopted during early stages of life. Questions related to birth family history and background, own opinion and understanding of adoption, and overall approach towards own adoptive history and current family, significantly affect the experiences and development of teenagers. Current family relation and method of family members to handle the situation also play a vital role in the teenagers’ life (Parenting Adolescents, 2015). The present paper examines various effects of adoption on adolescent. Identity development starts in childhood and becomes increasingly prominent during adolescence. Many adolescents struggle with the questions like, “Where do I belong?” and “Who am I?” in their teenage (Parenting your, 2015, p. 3). Adoption is a crucial factor of identity for adopted teenagers even in their adulthood. The process of identity development can be more complicated for an adopted individual due to the additional issues associated with adoption, such as who are his or her birth parents, what is their ethnicity and social background, how do they look, are there siblings, and why he or she was given for adoption. According to one study, adoption can affect differently in identify development of different people. According to it, there are five potential phases of impact; 1.Unawerness: The adopted person denies identifying adoption issues, 2. Growing awareness: The adopted person considers adoption as a positive thing and acknowledges certain issues, but he or she is not yet ready to face those issues, 3. Sinking in awareness: The adopted person suffers from significant anger, feeling of betrayal, loss, and sadness, 4. Adjusting with awareness: The adopted person realizes the issues associated with adoption and seeks to explore them. 5. Achieving peace: The adopted person solves his or her issues related with adoption and moves on in life (Impact, 2015, p. 2-3). During teenage, youth are highly concern with their appearance and physical attributes. Desire to meet birth parents begin to grow stronger among adolescents as they want to figure out how they are different from adopted family and resemble to birth parents. Also, questions related to gender identity and sexual orientation can add further confusion and frustration for adopted adolescents dealing with identity issues (Parenting your, 2015, p. 3-5). Even if an adopted child has seemed to be well adjusted and happy in the past, it is not odd to see him or her experiencing grief, rejection, abandonment, loss, anger, and even shame or guilt in teenage. The studies claim that grief is a natural and basic part of adoption. It can take years for adopted child to acknowledge or completely overcome the feeling of grief. It is mainly due to the fact that adopted child recognizes “lost” of his or her birth parents, family and culture even if he or she enjoys a great deal of comfort and happiness in current family (The Emotional, 2015). Such feeling of grief and loss can become stronger in semi-open or closed adoptions where hardly any or absolutely no contact or information of birthparents is provided. Constant feeling of hurt over the birthparents’ decision to give away or reject the child can trigger significant development and psychological issues in adopted child in teenage, especially feeling of isolation, low confidence, loss of self-esteem, complex issue, or feeling of “not wanting me”, and “not good enough” (Patricelli, 2007). Such vulnerable and hurtful feelings can trigger various psychological disorders such as anxiety, acute depression, specific phobia, bipolar disorder, and physical disorders like, hypertension, stress, and obesity (Parenting your, 2015, p. 9-10). According to Jane Scooler, the author of Searching for a Past and adoption specialist, it is not abnormal for adopted adolescents to fear leaving their home. Leaving home for career or other reasons often scares most adolescents as they have already experienced the pain of losing one family. According to the author, unlike normal teenagers, adopted teenagers afraid to leave the secure family life and often struggle with the idea of leaving alone or being independent (Parenting Adolescents, 2015). Also, adolescents raised in birth families can easily identify their resemblance among family members. They can easily recognize which family member’s physical characteristics or particular skills they have adopted. But it is not case with the adopted teens. The feeling of being different usually begins to develop among adopted children in their teenage as their physical aspect begin to be more visible. Comments of friends, neighbors, and relatives comparing physical resemblance with family make adopted teens feel more about their “outsider” status. The feeling of alienation is even stronger among adopted teens of different races. Such struggle often results into growing doubts among teens about their role in family and credibility as “real” family member, leading uncertainly about own future (Patricelli, 2007). Parent-child relation also plays a vital role in deciding the course of adoption impact on adolescent. Over the years, numerous studies have emphasized the influence of parenting style on the development of adolescents. Based on various factors such as, decision-making, discipline, and the standards of affection and control, four parenting styles, namely- negligent, authoritarian, indulgent, and authoritative are formed. Negligent parents are perceived as non-caring and non-demanding. Authoritarian parents are characterized as less tolerant and high demanding. Indulgent parents are considered as less controlling and very affectionate, while authoritative parents are considered to be disciplined but valuing autonomy and protective without being obtrusive (Reppold et al., 2010, p. 3-5). According to the available empirical data, adopted teenagers with indulgent parents tend to posses high levels of self-esteem and self-confidence, but extremely low levels of academic progress, higher substance abuse and anti-social behavior. These findings are exactly inverse in cases of adopted teens of authoritarian parents. Adopted adolescents of negligent parents are seen to be more prone to substance abuse, anti-social behavior, low-self esteem, academic difficulties, and psychological disorders such as, somatization, anxiety, and depression (Reppold et al., 2010, p. 5-7). Adolescents in families with supportive behavior, open communication, consistent emphasis on developing close-knit, supportive, and warm relations among family members, are found to be at lower risk of developmental and adjustment issues regardless of their adoption status (Rueter & Koerner, 2008, p. 715-725). In conclusion, adoption is a crucial part in the life of both parents and adopted child. Various researches and studies have identified varying effects of adoption on the life of adopted child. Adolescence is identified as the crucial stage of adopted child in which adoption begins to vibrantly affect the child. Adopted adolescents are often found struggling with identity and developmental issues. Negative feelings like, grief, loss, anger, frustration, and feeling of isolation or outcast commonly begin to develop among adopted children in their teenage. If parents are supportive and communicative, adopted adolescents usually overcome from such negative feelings and accept adoption as a positive outcome in their life. However, in case of negligent, indulgent, and excessively controlling parents, negative feelings in adopted adolescent can further intensify, leading numerous psychological problems and the development of anti-social behavior, rebel nature, and addiction in him or her. References Bernal, P. (2003). Information Packet: Adolescent Identity & the Impact on Adoptive Parents. National Resource Center for Foster Care and Permanency Planning, 1-25. Retrieved from http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/socwork/nrcfcpp/downloads/information_packets/adol-identity-and-adoptive-parents.pdf Impact of Adoption on Adopted Person (2015). Child Welfare Information Gateway, 1-10. Retrieved from https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubpdfs/f_adimpact.pdf Parenting Adolescents (2015). International Adoption Help. Retrieved from http://www.internationaladoptionhelp.com/international_adoption/international_adoption_parenting.htm Parenting your adopted teenager (2015). Child Welfare Information Gateway, 1-11. Retrieved from https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubPDFs/parent_teenager.pdf Patricelli, K. (2007, January 22). Long-Term Issues for The Adopted Child. MentalHelp.net. Retrieved from https://www.mentalhelp.net/articles/long-term-issues-for-the-adopted-child/ Reppold, C. T., Hutz, A., & Hutz, C. S. (2010). Psychological adjustment: Are adopted adolescents at greater risk for negative outcomes? Interpersona 4 (1), 1-20. Retrieved from https://abpri.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/interpersona-41_1.pdf Rueter, M. A., & Koerner, A. F. (2008). The Effect of Family Communication Patterns on Adopted Adolescent Adjustment. Journal of Marriage and the Family 70(3), 715–727. doi: 10.1111/j.1741-3737.2008.00516.x The Emotional Impact of Adoption & Adolescence (2015). New Leaf Academy. Retrieved from http://www.newleafacademy.com/article-impact-adoption.asp Read More