| The number of children adopted internationally continues to increase every year. Conflict exists in the literature concerning the children's adjustment once placed in adoptive families in the United States. The purpose of the correlation study was to describe the impact of risk and protective factors on the competence of adolescent children internationally adopted from orphanages in the former USSR. A secondary analysis utilizing a multilevel linear regression model was used to explore the following: describe the academic, social, and conduct competencies of 13 to 17 year old adolescents previously adopted from the former Soviet Union and who have resided in the United States for at least seven years; examine the relationship between the risk factors of birth weight, length of time in the orphanage, age at institutionalization, birth mother's exposure to alcohol, and the protective factors of the family environment as predictor variables on the sample's level of academic, social, and conduct competence at early adolescence; determine if any risk or protective factors noted at previous data collection points inform current measurement of academic, social, and conduct competence at early adolescence and; examine the relationship between time, and risk factors, and protective factors. The sample consisted of a retrospective (n = 30) sample of a cohort of international adoptees studied at 6-9 years of age (Time 1), at 9-12 years of age (Time 2), and at 13--17 years old (Time 3). The positive family environment continues to mediate the risk factors experienced by the internationally adoptees and positively impact competence at adolescence for this group of children. Within the protective factors of the family environment, cohesion was statistically significant with regards to total competence and social competence. Conduct competence was correlated with both family factors of cohesion and conflict. The length of time the child spent in the orphanage was demonstrated to have a statistically significant impact on competence when the data sets from Time 1, Time 2 and Time 3 were analyzed utilizing generalized estimation equation. At Time 3, birthweight was significantly correlated with academic competence. Age at institutionalization was significantly correlated with conduct competence. The child's competence---regardless of the degree of exposure to a positive family, or the length of time since exposed to risk---was impacted by birth weight. The internationally adopted child is a phenomenon of interest to nursing due to the physical, psychological, social, and cultural issues and/or problems that might be encountered in the adoptive families and their communities. A study of competence in the internationally adopted child will contribute to the body of nursing knowledge in several ways: increase understanding of the developmental trajectory possible with internationally adopted children; suggest the need for careful assessment and implementation of early interventions for this population, and; inform adoption agencies and potential parents of the challenges and potential outcomes that might be encountered when adopting internationally. |
