Adoptieouders, zwaar belaste ouders?

Abstract

We started a longitudinal study among 72 families who together adopted a total of 80 children from children's homes in Romania. The main questions concerned factors influencing family stress in adoptive families. We used the Nijmegen Child Rearing Questionnaire, the Child Behaviour Checklist and questionnaires measuring trauma, autism, ADHD, and adoption satisfaction. The family stress of the total group of adoptive parents was significantly higher than in the control group of non adoptive parents. The group was divided into a clinical (N=41) and a non-clinical (N=39) group according to the results on the above mentioned instruments. The non-clinical group experienced less family stress than the control group. This implies that adoptive parents are psychologically stronger than other parents. The parents of the clinical group experience significantly more family stress and significantly less satisfaction in the adoption than both the non-clinical and control group. The main factors influencing family stress and adoption satisfaction are Post Traumatic Stress Reaction (PTSR) and Externalising problem behaviour.