Two-Year Follow-up of Girls Adopted from China: Continuity and Change in Behavioural Adjustment.

Background:   To determine the developmental course of behavioural adjustment in 842 girls adopted from China.
Method:   Longitudinal data were collected with the Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL/1.5-5 or CBCL/6-18) from the same parent with a two-year interval. In data analysis, the entire sample was first treated as a whole, then was divided into three age cohorts, including (1) children who were in preschool ages in both phases (Preschool Cohort) (n = 417, M _age  = 2.5 years in Phase I), (2) children who crossed from preschool ages over to school ages (Transition Cohort) (n = 174, M _age  = 4.8 years in Phase I), and (3) children who were in school ages in both phases (School-age Cohort) (n = 251, M _age  = 8.5 years in Phase I).
Results:   The data revealed a strong behavioural continuity (rs = .57-.75) from Phase I to Phase II. The whole sample experienced a significant increase in both average score and rate of suboptimal adjustment on the CBCL Internalising and Total Problem scale. For children with suboptimal adjustment in Phase I, the odds for them to remain in suboptimal range in Phase II were very high. Repeated measures ANOVA revealed that the three cohorts changed differently over 2 years.
(© 2010 The Author. Child and Adolescent Mental Health © 2010 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.)