Early malnutrition and “late” adoption: a study of their effects on the development of Korean orphans adopted into American families

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to look at the effects of early malnutrition and “late” adoption on physical and mental development. A cohort of 240 female Korean orphans who were adopted into American families after the age of 2 years was divided into three nutrition groups and studied retrospectively. The assessment of current physical growth was based on height and weight and that of mental development on performance on IQ and achievement tests. The results showed that although the malnourished subjects had now surpassed the norms of their native Korean population, they were still significantly shorter and lighter than the controls (well-nourished). On American reference standards, none of the three groups could attain the mean. This suggests that malnutrition has a powerful effect on physical development. In school performance, the children who were severely malnourished before adoption could not reach the American average and scored significantly lower than the moderately malnourished and the well-nourished ones. The latter two groups have scored above the average, suggesting that such an attainment may reflect the special stimulatory character of the adoptive home. In addition, when age at adoption was taken into account, it was found to have a noticeable effect on mental performance independent of nutritional status. For practical implications, further research would have to involve the question of the relative roles of nutrition, duration of malnutrition, and age at adoption in determining the development of these orphans.