A comparison of parenting stress and children’s internalising, externalising and attachment-related behaviour difficulties in UK adoptive and non-adoptive families

A comparison of parenting stress and children’s internalising, externalising and attachment-related behaviour difficulties in UK adoptive and non-adoptive families

Jayne Harris-Waller, Charlotte Granger, Ben Gurney-Smith · Adoption & Fostering

An online questionnaire study compared 86 adoptive parents and 167 biological parents of children aged 3–11. Adoptive parents reported more stress and more child difficulties. Reported child difficulties were associated with parenting stress in both groups; many parents reporting substantial difficulties were not receiving services.

Limitations: Cross-sectional parent-reported associations do not prove direction of causation. Recruitment and shared reporting can affect comparisons; no direct child accounts. Only the publisher-deposited abstract was reviewed; regional coverage and additional methods are not inferred where unstated. UK research context does not confirm an exclusively England/Wales sample. One author was affiliated with Adoptionplus, an adoption service organisation. This affiliation should be considered without assuming it determined the results. Evidence-provider note: adoptive parents supplied some or all questionnaire/interview assessments of the adoptee’s outcomes. These proxy reports are not the adoptee’s own account; other evidence sources, where present, are described in the summary.

Research type

Cross-sectional comparative study

Source reviewed

Abstract

Peer reviewed

Yes

Age group

Children