The issue of social competence in post-institutionalized Russian children: an Italian brief report study

Research has shown that most of Russian adoptees who have experienced institutionalization and early social deprivation encounter both general and specific difficulties during middle childhood and preadolescence. In this study we investigated the quality of social behaviors and the implementation of maladaptive behaviors of 66 Russian adopted children (males=47) aged between 8 and 13 years (mean=10.51 sd=1.29), paired with a control group of Italian non-adopted children. Several questionnaires were completed by parents and by children themselves. Parents filled out the CBCL 6/18 (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001) and the CPRS-R: L (Conners, 2007). Children filled out the Aggressive Behavior Questionnaire (Little, Jones, Henrich & Hawley, 2003) and Prosocial Behavior Questionnaire (Caprara & Pastorelli, 1993). The results showed that, according to parents' reports, adopted children have more social difficulties with peers and they show more frequent maladaptive behaviors than non-adopted children. Conversely, adopted children were declared to be less aggressive than the control group.