:: Articles & Research: Raising the Post-Institutionalized Child

Raising the Post-Institutionalized Child Risks, Challenges and Innovative Treatment
By Dr. Ronald S. Federici

Introduction and Background

Adoptions have always been a very important part of American culture with a recent "evolution" to a higher volume of international adoptions as opposed to adopting from our United States social systems. Many people have chosen to adopt a child from a foreign country as they find the procedure quick and cost effective with very little waiting time and an abundance of younger children readily available. Furthermore, many people choosing international adoption have the belief that adopting an infant or even older child from another country will spare them the pain and hardship of waiting for a child to become available or, more commonly, having the opportunity to "pick and choose" from a large volume of children who the family believes will rapidly "fit in" to their current family structure, physical appearance, and greatly appreciate all what they can offer them in our somewhat extravagant and over stimulating American lifestyles. American families also believe they will be spared any possibility of involvement with the biological parents if they adopt from another country as there have been numerous high profile cases in the United States in which the biological parents come forward after an adoption in an effort to reclaim their child based on a defense of incorrect adoption, improper legal proceedings, or even a "change of heart". Adopting the child who has been raised in an institutional setting abroad poses some very important "risk factors" which are not always properly understood, disclosed or explained to families. The statistics of families adopting abroad beginning almost three decades ago when Korean adoptions set the stage for international adoptions have grown at an astronomical rate. Central and South America have always been very prominent countries allowing international adoption but, following the fall of the dictator Ceaucesceu in Romania in 1989 and the multitude of dramatic television portraying the plight of the Romanian orphan housed in the most damaging of conditions brought thousands of Americans and Europeans to Romania on their own to adopt these very special children with unknown pre and post risk factors (Kifner, 1989; Battiata 1990, 1991) Romanian adoptions set the stage for other Eastern Bloc countries to open their doors to Americans and Europeans, with the former Soviet Union allowing for a great volume of international adoptions beginning in 1993. Many other Eastern European countries followed suit in international adoptions with the most recent surge of adoptions occurring in Southeast Asia, particularly China and now Vietnam as well as long-standing programs in Korea.

According to current US INS statistics, approximately 16,396 children were adopted from abroad by Americans in 1999. Although international adoption has been gradually increasing in the United States since the 1950s, it has dramatically increased over the course of the past decade. For example, from 1992 to 1999 alone, international adoptions in the United States increased from 6,536 to 16,396 children, representing a 250% increase in only 7 years.