Missing experts to cope with adolescence of adoptees

The stage of adolescence always has been to break with the child, including the first relationship with parents, to compose a new identity imitating more or less known and adults alike.  That process, which psychologists describe as very complex in recent generations of adolescents, can multiply their difficulty in young people who have been adopted in countries of different cultures and epidermal pigmentation to the West.  In that circumstance are nearly 9,000 children born in Asia, Africa or America, which formed its current Catalan family in the past decade.

Specialists predict that in just four years increased dramatically seeking help from adoptive families who feel lost, or perhaps plunged, with the first mode I am not send you because you are not my mother (or my father) "launched by the quinceañera they took in the 90 in Russia or India, where the culture on this model family was scarce and motivation of each intimate partner or person determined to have children was the only wealth they undertook the process.

"We are preparing to boom demands for emotional support that will occur in three or four years, when the first generation of children adopted abroad reaches adolescence - Sun says Florensa, director of the Child Care Unit Adopted Institut Dexeus -. need specialized professionals. "

There is no precedent on this issue, except for a few studies do not apply here in the USA. The casuistry referred to developments and reactions of adopted children - and their adoptive parents - will develop on the fly.  These families are making history.  We know, for example, that the more time a child has spent in the orphanage after it hosted separated from his mother, may be worse developments once embraced by his family Catalan.

The term "evolution" both phase of anxiety and tantrums logical who has been separated from the caretaker until then fed it - the only family he knew - as overcoming the sadness that the loss of such a reference implies, or the more or less rapid incorporation of the Catalan language / Spanish, when all heard and maybe talked to then Chinese, Russian and Hindi. . They are minority children adopted before reaching one year of age.  And most are those who are around 3 and are, therefore, its small baggage.

There is no doubt about the overwhelming importance for these children is the affection they arrive steadily and stable. . "The emotional security is the key to success in their lives," he says, vigorously Florensa.

The maxim that no two teenage peers is particularly appropriate when it refers to people born in different continents.  That evidence, however, does not make them happy.  The search for identity of the person who perceives that is changing physically, psychologically and sexually are doubled when their traits not found a mirror that look.

"This step is a huge leap for any teenager, but it is twice as big if it has been taken on another continent," says the psychologist, who is heading a team Advisory Pedagogical Badalona.  "The physical changes are not identical to those of the kids here, and have no one with whom to be reflected - intervenes Florensa -. This creates conflicts and often the time when many adopted decide to go in search of their origins".

In the way of thought, kind of education, conduct, and even gestualidad psychic structure, these guys are identified by their adoptive parents, but the need to investigate its origins creates enormous anxiety or even hostility.  And it imposes.  "If you ask, the ideal is to travel to the area where they were born - says pediatrician -. If you are unable to be at that time, it puts a time limit."

It is desirable that the adoptive parents feel sympathy, or estimated, for the country where his son was born.  And, of course, they should be informed about their characteristics.  It is healthy that the adopted child feels affection for his home country, which values the fact that there gave him a life, explained the specialists. "If you remove such identification, he was deprived of everything that is" alert.