Half of adoptees report significant life challenges, with a further third reporting medium-scale impact. Find out more about this brand new study into the lifelong impacts of adoption and the importance of adoptee wellbeing support...

Following the research project completed summer 2021 by Gillian Bruce of How To Be Adopted we can now reveal our findings on some of the potential lifelong impacts of adoption.

What did we do?

We devised our own questionnaire using opposing statements to explore 34 different areas of life where adoption was perceived to have had an effect, such a relationships, careers and parenting. We also researched existing research on the lifelong consequences of adoption.

What did we ask?

We asked a selection of UK adopted adults aged 21-70 about their lived experience of adoption from the rear-view mirror.

We asked about how being adopted had affected people in three areas of lived experience:

1. physically / biologically

2. socially-relationally-emotionally

3. psychologically

We asked about their age group; gender; age they were adopted; and whether or not they engaged with adopted adult support groups.

What did we find?

We found that:

Adoption creates a certain set of impacts across the three areas of lived experience. 

Although adoption is complex and individual and no two adoptees will share the same effects, clear potential areas of impact can be identified.

Half of adoptees (around 50%) have experienced high-impact across many of the areas explored and had sought help to try and manage their lives. 

This group had typically spent a significant amount of time and money on a range of support resources such as therapy, workshops, healing treatments, books, and spiritual avenues.

Around a third of adoptees (around 35%) were able to identify medium scale, significant impacts. 

These impacts had made some key areas of life difficult across the three areas of lived experience, and the adoptees had sought help in some form to overcome them.

Some adoptees (approx. 15%) reported very little impact. 

With a medium to high score in only one or two areas of the 34 explored.

Additional findings:

• Current age – largely, the younger respondents seemed to have experienced more challenges. This may be because their adoption happened at an older age and involved time in the care system (or some other kind of disruption) prior to adoption. Whilst some of the older adoptees had been highly affected, their adoption situations were often more straightforward.

• Gender – female participants reported slightly more disruption than males. However, cultural pressures on males to ‘tough it out’ may be part of this picture.

• Age of adoption – it was clear that the later the adoption the more significant the impacts, although some people in the study who had been adopted between 0-6 months had experienced high impact too. Family attunement or the provision of a loving, affectionate environment seemed to be a likely factor involved in the level of difficulty with adoption.

• Engagement with peer support – initially we had wondered if the engagement in an adopted adult community had any bearing on the level of impact experienced – however, this was not the case. Some adoptees in support groups reported low impact and some with high impact did not engage with any groups. However, it must be said that the prevalence of adult adoptee support groups is extremely patchy with many areas having no such provision. Many adoptees had never even heard of an adopted adult community or group in the UK and several reported joining US forums. It became clear that adoptees really valued sharing and learning from each other and experience a sense of belonging amongst others ‘who get it’. Watch this space!

Initial research into existing adoption research

We found that the most often quoted study was that of Silverstein and Kaplan (1982)* who reported ‘The Seven Lifelong Consequences of Adoption’:

1. Loss – adoption is a life-altering loss with no end, resulting in potential threat of future loss having a profound impact.

2. Rejection – from having been given away, resulting in a heightened sensitivity around any future hint of rejection.

3. Guilt and shame – guilt and shame around having been rejected, internalised as being ‘rejectable’ or not good enough.

4. Grief – loss needs a grieving process, but this is difficult when adoption is ‘sold’ to the child as a positive event that should be celebrated, should be joyful and that they should be thankful for. Grief becomes held back and stored in the body.

5. Identity – the lack of genetic, medical, historical and religious information leads adoptees to question who they are and where they belong. In later life adoptees are more likely to seek ‘belonging’ than their peers and are susceptible to the attraction of cults, gangs or anything that provides a strong sense of belonging, like the Armed Services.

6. Intimacy – due to all the above factors adoptees can build up a strong fear about experiencing another loss of intimate connection so can tend to avoid committed, intimate relationships.

7. Mastery / control – having had no choice about the most significant life relationships, with no say in early events, adoptees can engage in power struggles with parents or authority and have strong needs around autonomy.

Further research studies were found, these largely focused on a specific area such as educational attainments or mental health of adoptees.

Get access to all the data as well as insights from adoptees

If you would like to find out more about this fascinating project and get access to all the statistics and data as well as shared experiences from adoptees, please email: hello@howtobeadopted.com

Coming soon: Gillian Bruce we will give her conclusions and future ideas for how to improve adoptee wellbeing.

*We have not linked to further information on the Silverstein and Kaplan study as we do not want to endorse the websites where that information currently appears. If you have a more neutral source for the Silverstein and Kaplan study please let us know!

Photo by Leilani Angel on Unsplash