Early years adversity, adoption and adulthood: conceptualising long-term outcomes

Abstract

This article discusses the methodological and conceptual issues surrounding a long-term follow-up study of girls adopted from orphanages in China around the age of two years. The aim of the study was to see if any effects of early negative experiences affected the women some 45 years later. Seventy-two out of the original 100 women were assessed by means of interviews and questionnaires that explored their health, behaviour, achievements, life satisfaction, self-esteem, relationships, ethnic identification, community connectedness and personality profiles. The results were compared with data from the UK National Child Development Study of children born in 1958. It was found that on the measures used, the adopted women were little different from the national population, suggesting that early disadvantage can be reversed and positive developmental pathways re-established. The article then reviews the methods and instruments used to assess adults in mid-life, especially those sensitive to identifying adversities resulting from early neglect. It is suggested that checklists of psychological problems may be insufficient to produce a complete picture and that a wider range of measures is needed to capture important features of interpersonal relationships and parenting histories, with an additional requirement to incorporate the experiences and variables introduced by adoption. Two concepts – ‘life-long preoccupations’ and ‘a carapace’ – are suggested as especially useful in this respect.