Adopted alien kids fare well

CHICAGO – They are often born in poverty and civil strife, abandoned, put in an orphanage, and then suddenly uprooted and sent to live an ocean away with strangers from another culture.

And yet, children adopted from abroad seem to adjust remarkably well, according to a new study that challenges the widely held notion that these youngsters are badly damaged emotionally and prone to disruptive behavior.

The analysis of more than 50 years of international data found that youngsters adopted from abroad are only slightly more likely than nonadopted children to have behavioral problems such as aggressiveness and anxiety. And they actually seem to have fewer problems than children adopted within their own countries.

“The first years of life should not be considered as inevitable destiny. On the contrary, most children grab the new chance offered to them,” said researchers Femmie Juffer and Marinus van IJzendoorn of Leiden University in the Netherlands.

International adoptions involve more than 40,000 children a year moving among more than 100 countries, the researchers said.

“Our findings may help them fight the stereotype that is often associated with international adoption,” the researchers said.

The study appears in today’s Journal of the American Medical Association.