Adoption comes with many amazing benefits not only for the birth parents and adoptive couple but for the kids, too. Adoption provides children with the opportunity to experience life in a way that their birth parents wanted for them.
Even though there are challenges raising an adopted child, remember that there are challenges in parenthood in general. It’s also important to recognize that the positive effects of adoption on the child outweigh the negatives.
While adoptive parents and birth families can picture what their lives will look like after choosing adoption, how the effects of being adopted will impact the child remains uncertain. How does adoption affect a child? What are the positive effects of adoption on the child?
Although every adoption is unique, and each child’s reaction to growing up adopted will vary, some elements can give us predictions. The most significant contributing element to how adoption affects a child is the love and support they receive from their adoptive parents, the household they grow up in, and how adults around them discuss adoption. Even though adoption is not without its challenges, it also brings about many positive effects.
What Are the Positive Effects of Adoption on a Child?
Birth parents and adoptive parents share common hopes and goals — to provide a lifetime of love, support, and opportunity to the child. How these goals are achieved depends greatly on how adoption positively affects the child’s development.
A study of adoptees conducted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that adopted children often grow up having significant advantages. They found that adopted children were less likely to live in households below the poverty line and more likely to have health insurance. Statistics indicated that 85% of adopted children are in “very good to excellent” health, and 68% of adoptees were read to daily as a child (compared to 48% of non-adopted children).
In addition, adoptees are more likely to participate in extracurricular activities. Over half of the adoptees studied reported having “very good or excellent” performance in reading, language arts, and math. Let’s delve into some more positive effects of adoption on a child.
Adoption provides the child with a stable, loving home environment.
Growing up in a loving, stable environment is one of the most notable positive impacts on an adopted child. This could simply mean having a physical house they can come home to every day. Or it could mean that the child has the financial resources needed to live in a way that the birth mother could not have provided.
Perhaps it means having healthy emotional support throughout the years or a reliable routine with opportunities for extras, like music lessons or after-school sports. Stability goes a long way. A family that welcomes an adopted child into their circle to love them unconditionally and show them a strong family model is a huge benefit.
Adoption provides opportunities for the child.
Adopted children are often likelier to have better educational support and personal success. Adoptive parents want to see their child succeed in every way — emotionally, educationally, mentally, physically, and spiritually. They help them reach goals and often provide them with learning opportunities that help enrich them and tap into their natural abilities.
In the end, that translates to a child who grows into an adult who knows who they are and what they want out of life. Primary in this is growing up knowing the truth that they were adopted and chosen out of love. The birth mother, adoptive parents, and the adopted child can form a bond that lasts a lifetime.
Says one birth mother, Tina, “The moment I placed my child in the care of the adoptive parents…I was giving up a part of myself to create a new future filled with more opportunity, more love, and more connection.” (from her guest column for the Calgary Herald.)
Adoption provides the child with more love.
A birth mother choosing adoption wants what is best for her child. Placing her child with adoptive parents is one of the most loving decisions she will make. She wants her child to experience unconditional love, no matter what the ups and downs of life bring. As many people say, adoption means more people to love your child.
And while a birth mother loves her child with her whole being, she knows that allowing her child the opportunity to experience more love from a family is something that will benefit her child. Choosing adoption does not mean she loves her child any less; in fact, it demonstrates an even greater selfless love.
Adoption provides the child with a chance to fulfill their dreams.
Adoption creates a special space for the child to grow and thrive. They are given the chance to see and experience the world in a way that may not have happened without the adoption. This allows them to begin dreaming, even from a young age.
And because modern open adoption allows adoptive families to stay connected with the birth mother, the child will be able to live out their dreams with a well-rounded support system that encourages them every step of the way.
Adoption gives the child extra support throughout their lifetime.
Having people who love, support, and surround you during good times and bad is so important, especially for kids learning how to navigate the world. Choosing adoption gives the child an automatic extra support system. This is invaluable for a child. It helps women who are pregnant and considering adoption make the loving choice to begin the adoption process and put together an adoption plan.
Lifetime Adoption
If you are facing an unplanned pregnancy, our team of caring adoption coordinators can help answer your questions.
What will be your adoption story? Many people contact adoption agencies, not knowing quite where to begin. They know that adoption affects everyone in a beneficial way. And it begins when you make contact!
We have been helping families and expectant parents across the United States since 1986 and look forward to helping determine if modern adoption is right for you. Call or text us anytime at 1-800-923-6784.
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on November 25, 2020, and has since been updated.
As Vice President of Lifetime Adoption, Heather Featherston holds an MBA and is passionate about working with those facing adoption, pregnancy, and parenting issues. Heather has conducted training for birth parent advocates, spoken to professional groups, and has appeared on television and radio to discuss the multiple aspects of adoption. She has provided one-on-one support to women and hopeful adoptive parents working through adoption decisions.
Since 2002, she has been helping pregnant women and others in crisis to learn more about adoption. Heather also trains and speaks nationwide to pregnancy clinics to effectively meet the needs of women who want to explore adoption for their child. Today, she continues to address the concerns women have about adoption and supports the needs of women who choose adoption for their child.
As a published author of the book Called to Adoption, Featherston loves to see God’s hand at work every day as she helps children and families come together through adoption.
Why is it difficult for single women to adopt?
Hi Tonya,
That’s a great question! Several single women have successfully adopted through Lifetime. We work with only a limited number of single parent adoptions at one time, because often it can take longer to be selected by a birth mother. Often, a birth mother will want to place her baby in a two-parent home, especially if this is something she cannot provide for her child due to an absent birth father.