Successful Adoption of Children with Down Syndrome and Other Developmental Disabilities

Abstract

Children with many types of developmental disabilities have been successfully adopted. Nonetheless, there appears to be a belief among both adopters and some adoption workers that children with Down syndrome are especially easy to rear. The current paper uses different methodological strategies, including case-by-case matching and regression techniques, to test hypotheses relating to better outcomes for parents and families who have adopted children with Down syndrome in comparison to children with other developmental disabilities. The results demonstrated successful functioning for parents and families on a variety of measures, regardless of whether the adopted children had Down syndrome or other developmental disabilities. The positive stereotype for Down syndrome was not supported.