Adopted Children Brought to Child Psychiatric Clinic

The charts of 593 children seen at theStaten Island Mental Health Center were reviewed. Of this total, 14 cases or 2.4% werefound to be extrafamilially adopted children. Among the small number of adopted children seen in the sample there was a preponderance of personality trait disturbances. The studied children were brought to theclinic 1.4 times as frequently as would be expected on the basis of their existence in thecommunity. The rate at which they werebrought to a low income, community clinicwas found to be much lower than the ratesreported in a higher income clinic or in aprivate practice. Extrafamilially adopted children who had been adopted in the communityof thestudy, and who had remained there,were seen less frequently than were nonadoptedchildren. Sampling and choice ofbase rates for assessing emotional morbidityof adopted children were thought to explainhigher rates found in other studies.