Adoption Is a Successful Natural Intervention Enhancing Adopted Children's IQ and School Performance

Is the cognitive development of adopted children different from that of (a) children who have remained in institutional care or in their birth families or (b) their current (environmental) nonadopted siblings or peers? We attempt to answer these questions on the basis of a meta-analysis of 62 studie...

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Published inCurrent directions in psychological science : a journal of the American Psychological Society Vol. 14; no. 6; pp. 326 - 330
Main Authors van IJzendoorn, Marinus H., Juffer, Femmie
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA Blackwell Publishers 01.12.2005
SAGE Publications
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects
Academic achievement
Adopted children
Adoption
Child care
Child nutrition disorders
Child rearing
Children & youth
Cognitive development
Intelligence
Intelligence quotient
Language
Learning disabilities
Meta-analysis
School age children
Siblings
Special education
Systematic review
meta-analysis
IQ
language
adoption
school achievement
special education
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Summary:Is the cognitive development of adopted children different from that of (a) children who have remained in institutional care or in their birth families or (b) their current (environmental) nonadopted siblings or peers? We attempt to answer these questions on the basis of a meta-analysis of 62 studies including 17,767 adopted children. Compared to their nonadopted siblings or peers who stayed behind, adopted children scored substantially higher on IQ tests and they performed much better at school. Compared to their current nonadopted environmental peers or siblings, adopted children showed similar IQ scores but their school performance and language abilities lagged somewhat behind. Most importantly, we found a twofold increase in special-education referrals in adopted children compared to their nonadopted peers. Taken together, the findings document the positive impact of adoption on children's cognitive development and adopted children's remarkably normal cognitive competence but somewhat delayed school performance.
ISSN:0963-7214
1467-8721
DOI:10.1111/j.0963-7214.2005.00391.x