Adoption does affect children. In some ways, adoption has a tremendously positive affect on children. In other ways, adoption can cause a child a great deal of pain. However, in the long run, the positive affects of adoption on children typically will outweigh the negative affects. Knowing what ways adoption can affect children can help the children and the adoptive parents be more prepared for the various issues that may arise.

Adoption tends to have a greater affect on older children than it does on children who were adopted as infants. For adolescents in particular, adoption can be a very traumatic time. If a child is adopted as a baby, she may not even know that she is adopted, or understand what it means to have been adopted, for a very long time. By the time that she does find out that she is adopted, she will hopefully be in a loving, well-adjusted adoptive family.

Still, being adopted does affect children’s sese of identity. While there is not nearly the same level of social stigma surrounding adoption that there was in the past, there certainly are some internal pressures on the adopted child. He may struggle with understanding who he is, where he has come from, and his place in the world.

There are other affects that the adopted child will feel that may not necessarily be caused by the adoption itself. An adopted child may feel the loss of her birth family. She may feel rejected by her birth family. She might feel shame or guilt about being adopted. She may have problems with intimacy, not having had those opportunities to bond as an infant with her adoptive parents.

Still, adoption affects children positively overall. It gives a permanent home to children who might not otherwise have a permanent home. It provides a loving, caring, and nurturing family to children who otherwise would probably only have a series of foster families who may or may not treat the child properly, and who he would have to leave frequently. The positive affects of a family and a home cant be underestimated, and can easily outweigh the other affects of adoption.

Posted in Adoption

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