Moderately depriving orphanage care did not predict enduring adverse consequences in mid-life but subsequent poor adoption experience was associated with outcome.

No abstract

In the field of international adoption there has been a long-standing concern that transracially adopted people experience social dislocation from both their communities of origin and the communities in which they grew up. Alan Rushton, Margaret Grant, John Simmonds and Julia Feast of the British Chinese Adoption Study team explore this notion in relation to a sample of 72 ex-orphanage, Hong Kong-born women adopted into British families in the 1960s. The authors report on how the women choose to identify themselves in mid life. The article describes the development and use of specially devised questionnaires to explore community connectedness and self-regard among this group of women. Further analysis examines the relationship between community connectedness and psychological well-being. The findings are then positioned in the context of the narrative data from face-to-face interviews with the women.

This article examines one of the less frequently considered elements of riots: the emotions to which they give rise. Based on testimony from interviews with people who took part in the 2011 England riots, it explores the curiosity which drew many onto the streets, the excitement and fear involved in such quickly unfolding and unpredictable events, the impunity that many felt being part of such large crowds, together with the sense of ‘empowerment’ many experienced as a consequence of their involvement. The article suggests that a number of concepts regularly deployed within cultural criminology – most obviously ‘carnival’ and ‘edgework’ – are useful in understanding elements of the emotional world of the riot. More fundamentally, however, it is argued that what the accounts describe more than anything else is a pervading sense of ‘alienation’ among many of those involved in the disorder.

The pathway from adverse early experience to adulthood for internationally adopted children is complex in identifying key influences, impacts, and outcomes. This review arose from the authors' involvement in the British Chinese Adoption Study, a recent outcomes study that explored the links between early orphanage care, adoptive experiences, and midadulthood. It differs from previous reviews in focusing on a greater length of time since adoption. Both quantitative and qualitative studies were included to allow for examination of a fuller range of adult-related outcomes rather than mental health scores alone. The sampling, methods, and results of reviewed articles are summarised and a critical commentary is provided. Despite methodological differences and identified strengths and weaknesses, conclusions are drawn on the basis of the evidence available. Special attention is paid to the interpretation of negative outcomes. Findings identify areas that should be explored further in order to gain a fuller understanding of midlife outcomes of people who experienced a poor start in life followed by international adoption. Such studies help in refining lifespan developmental theories.