The Psychology of Adoption

In this volume David Brodzinsky, who has conducted one of the nation's largest studies of adopted children, and Marshall Schechter, a noted child psychiatrist who has been involved with adoption related issues for over forty years, have brought together a group of leading researchers from various disciplines to explore the complex interdisciplinary subject of adoption. While recent empirical work has shown that adopted children are more vulnerable to a host of psychological and school-related problems compared to their nonadopted peers, and that the rate of referral of adopted children to mental-health facilities is far above what would be expected given their representation in the general population, our understanding of the basis for these problems remains unclear. In this book, theoretical, empirical, clinical, and social policy issues offer new insights into the problems facing parents of adopted children, and especially the children themselves. A comprehensive study, The Psychology of Adoption will be of interest to child psychiatrists, developmental and clinical psychologists, social workers, social service providers, and adoptive parents.