Niños adoptados y no adoptados: un estudio comparativo

Abstract

In the research regarding adoption, one of the most common lines of study is the comparison between children and teenagers who are adopted and those who are not. The literature has tended to show high levels of adjustment and performance among adopted youngsters, although the data vary from one study to another depending on, mainly, the type of adopted children taken into consideration and the comparison groups which are used. This paper reports a comparative study in which a total of 865 Andalusian children between the ages of 4 and 16 were studied. These children came from four different groups: adopted children, their current classmates, children fiom the areas where the adopted children came from, and institutionalized children. The comparisons were carried out in three areas: behavior problems, self-estee and academic achievement. The results showed a big similarity between the adopted children and their current classmates, the institutionalized children being the ones who obtained the worst results in the comparisons as a whole.