Psychological adjustment of adoptees in adulthood: Family environment and adoption-related correlates

This longitudinal study explored psychological adjustment, evaluated in terms of self-concept and pathological symptomatology, in a nonclinical, community-based sample of adult adoptees and a matched control group of nonadoptees. Also explored was the role of adoption-related variables - age of placement of adoption, openness to adoption, and reunion with biological parents as well as family environment in predicting adjustment. Adoptees, as compared with nonadoptees, scored lower on self-concept but higher on pathological symptomatology. Likewise, they scored their families lower on all three dimensions of family environment - relationships, personal growth, and system maintenance. However, family environment variables were more predictive of adjustment in adoptees than in nonadoptees. Age of placement and openness to adoption were also associated with adoptees' adjustment.