Developmental Psychology1982, Vol. 18, No. 4, 595-599

Copyright 1982 by the American Psychological Association, Inc.0012-1649/82/1804-0595S00.75

Intellectual and Adaptive Performance of Asian Childrenin Adoptive American SettingsE. Audrey Clark and Jeanette Hanisee

Department of Home Economics, California State University, Northridge

This study sought to determine the presence of developmental delay in adoptedAsian children who had suffered disruptive early childhood experiences. The 25pre-school-age subjects in the sample had been adopted from Southeast Asia.All were found to have experienced one or more forms of preadoptive deprivation.The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) and the Vineland Social MaturityScale (VSMS) were used to measure the children's levels of intellectual andsocial competence, respectively. The results indicate that the adopted Asian chil-dren exceed the performance levels established by the original standardizationgroups for the PPVT and VSMS at a highly significant level.

The United States is having a major influxof Asian refugees, including a number ofchildren who have been adopted by Ameri-can families. Most of these children haveexperienced separation, institutionalization,deprivation, or malnutrition, factors thathave been associated with developmentaldelay. For this reason, some professionalsand prospective parents fear that the adoptedAsian child will not measure up to Americanpeers.

It is not difficult to find support for thisconcern. The classic studies of Spitz (1945;Spitz & Wolf, 1946) supported the notionthat institutionalization of infants and youngchildren is likely to cause irreversible mentaland emotional damage. Douglas (1975)found that prolonged or repeated hospitaladmission in early childhood was associatedwith later behavior disturbances. Bowlby's(1970) work suggested that maternal depri-vation is profoundly detrimental to earlydevelopment. In addition, malnutrition hasbeen implicated in affecting early braingrowth (Dobbing, 1970; Dobbing & Sands,1973; Winick & Rosso, 1969). Clarke andClarke (1976) wrote that the view that theearly years of infant development are criticalhas become so widely accepted as to be im-plicit in the decision making of researchworkers and practitioners alike.

Requests for reprints should be sent to E. AudreyClark, Department of Home Economics, CaliforniaState University, 18111 Nordhoff Street, Northridge,California 91330.

Despite this barrage of pessimistic find-ings regarding the prognosis for children ex-periencing early social disruption, other ev-idence suggests that children can enduresignificant deprivation without permanentinjury. Kagan and Klein (1973) indicatedthat even though children were stimulus de-prived during their first years of life, theywere able to perform competently by age 11.Skodak and Skeels (1949) found that whiteinfants from low socioeconomic backgroundsshowed substantial gains when placed inadoptive homes with upper income, educatedparents. In their new environment, adopteesshowed mental functioning that greatly sur-passed that of their biological mothers.

Some of these more optimistic researchfindings have included Asian children. Scarrand Weinberg's (1976) research on theplacement of black and interracial children(including eight Asian adoptees) in upper-middle-class, educated, white families sup-ported the Skodak & Skeels (1949) study.The mental test scores of the adoptees weresignificantly higher (1 SD) than those oftheir nonadopted peers living with biologicalfamilies in the same locale. Rathburn (1964/1976) investigated 33 foreign childrenadopted in the United States. This group ofGreek, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Arme-nian, Austrian, and mixed-parentage chil-dren were found to be adequate or notablysuperior on measures of IQ and general com-petence 6 years after placement.

Furthermore, Winick, Meyer, and Harris(1975) found that a group of severely mal-

595

596 E. AUDREY CLARK AND JEANETTE HANISEE

nourished Korean children later placed inUnited States adoptive homes exceeded meanvalues of United States children on groupintelligence tests'. The severely malnourishedgroup had a mean IQ score of 102. This isin contrast to a mean IQ of 58 found in astudy of similarly malnourished childrenwho were returned to their original homeenvironments after hospitalization for mal-nutrition (Hertzig, Birch, Richardson, &Tizard, 1972). Clarke and Clarke (1976)concluded that most studies of children whohave spent early lives in chaotic conditionsindicate that these children turn out to bemore "normal" or less "maladapted" thanexpected, if placed in better environments.

Few studies have dealt exclusively withAsian adoptees and have also included bothmeasures of intelligence and adaptive be-havior. This research sought to fill that gapby investigating the levels of intellectual andadaptive development of Asian children whohad been placed in adoptive homes in theUnited States. It was reasoned that averageor better performance in both areas wouldbe substantial evidence that the childrenwere not developmentally delayed. The re-search compared subjects' mean scores onthe Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test(PPVT; Dunn, 1965) and the Vineland So-cial Maturity Scale (VSMS; Doll, 1965)with standardization data. Scores were alsoexamined for differences associated with sex,age at time of placement and testing, pres-ence of siblings in the home at time of place-ment, health history, number of foster place-ments, and length of stay in the adoptivehome.

Method

Subjects

The sample of Asian adoptees was obtained by tele-phone through the membership lists of organizations forfamilies with cross-racial adoptees. Part of the samplewas referred by members of these organizations or byother contacts. Of the first 29 families contacted thatseemed to fit the established criteria, 21 were members,7 were referred by members, and 1 was referred by apersonal contact of the researcher. One of the familieslater declined to participate for job-related reasons.Three other participants in the study were also elimi-nated due to inappropriate age, race, or length of place-ment. The final sample of 25 consisted of 11 boys and14 girls (age range, 31-71 months; mean' age, 44

months). There were 12 from Vietnam, 8 from Korea,3 from Cambodia, and 2 from Thailand. All subjectshad been placed in the adoptive home prior to 36 monthsof age and had been in the adoptive home a minimumof 23 months. (The range of time spent in the home was23-57 months, with a mean of 33 months.) All subjectswere in good health at the time of the study. All familieswere English-speaking United States citizens.

Test InstrumentsThe PPVT is a standardized picture-vocabulary in-

telligence measure that has been shown to correlatemoderately well with measures such as the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale (Dunn, 1965). Hughes (1965)showed a positive correlation of the PPVT and theWechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) amongblack and white rural children. Corwin (1965) foundstrong correlations between the PPVT and WISC withchildren of Mexican-American descent. She noted thatchildren limited in Anglo cultural and language expe-rience scored lower than nonlimited peers. Shotwell,O'Connor, Gabet, & Dingman (1969) recommended thePPVT for assessing mental ability;while recognizing,however, its limitations for individual IQ prediction.

The PPVT was used because it is especially appro-priate for the preschool child, requiring only the abilityof the subject to see pictures, hear the examiner's re-quest, interpret the meaning of the stimulus word, andpoint to the picture of choice. The examiner was ex-perienced in administering the test to preschool children.

The VSMS is a measure of social competence ob-tained by interviewing the parent about the child's per-formance on a series of age-graded skills representativeof activities of daily life. The expectation was that theinclusion of an adaptive measure would reduce penaltiescaused by sole reliance on a verbal measure of intelli-gence.

Procedure

Data were obtained from the administration of thePPVT (Dunn, 1965) and the VSMS (Doll, 1965), bothof which are standardized measures. Twenty percent ofthe subjects from the original sample were randomlyselected to be retested by a second interviewer after aninterval of 6 months, to establish reliability. In additionto the standardized instruments, two questionnaireswere administered to parents of the subjects to gaininformation on background variables.

Two questionnaires were sent to the subjects' parentsand were reviewed with the examiner on the examina-tion dates. Questionnaire I provided information on theparents' age, income, education, language, and citizen-ship, as well as age and number of children in the home.Questionnaire II established the subjects' age, countryof origin, health, length of placement, and backgroundvariables that might have affected development (health,hospitalization. institutionalization, foster care).

Means and standard deviations for these childrenwere compared with those of the original standardiza-tion groups on the PPVT and VSMS. A matrix of cor-relations was prepared including age at adoption, ageat testing, sex, preadoption health status, number of

ASIAN CHILDREN IN ADOPTIVE SETTINGS 597

foster placements, number of months in the adoptivehome, and PPVT and VSMS scores.

Assessments took place in the subject's home. Theparent was interviewed with the VSMS, and the com-pleted questionnaires were reviewed for accuracy andexpansion. The PPVT (Form B) was then administeredto the subject. Verification of the original results wasattempted by randomly selecting 20% of the subjectsfrom the original sample for retesting 6 months laterby a second examiner. The PPVT alternate form (FormA) was administered at the retest, and the VSMS wasreadministered to the parents.

Results and Discussion

The histories of the subjects obtained fromthe adoptive parents included several factorsthat might have been predictive of delayeddevelopment. In terms of health, the prog-nosis for high scores was pessimistic. Sixteenof the subjects were reported to have beenmalnourished at some time during infancy.Fourteen of these were in sufficiently poorcondition to have required hospitalizationprior to or on arrival in the United States.The diagnoses included malnutrition, dehy-dration, muscle weakness, and in some casespneumonia.

All of the subjects had experienced infantseparation from their mothers and biologicalfamilies. All had at one time lived in or-phanages, foster homes, hospitals, or a com-bination of these. Most of the Vietnamesesubjects were evacuated from Vietnam dur-ing the last stages of United States militaryinvolvement in 1975, There was little or noscreening of adoptable versus unadoptablechildren at that time. The sample, therefore,may have included children with emotionaland developmental disabilities.

The mean performance of the children onthe PPVT was in the superior range (M =120; SD = 16) when compared to Dunn's(1965) normative group (see Table 1). In-dividual scores ranged from 89 to 143. A ttest comparing the subjects to the normativegroup was significant (p < .001). Thesescores on an English-language-based mea-sure are remarkable in view of the back-ground of the children, which included a latestart in English language development.

The above-average scores obtained by thesample on the PPVT may be the result ofthe adoptive home environment. The adop-tive families were highly educated and were

Table 1Performance of Asian Adoptees Compared toStandardization Groups on PPVT and VSMS

SubjectsM

scores SD K24)

PVVT

Asian adoptees 120 16Standardization group 100 IS 6.11*

VSMS

Asian adoptees 137 20Standardization group 100 10 9.06*

Note. PVVT = Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test;VSMS = Vineland Social Maturity Scale. N (Asianadoptees) = 25.*p<.001.

higher than average in income and occupa-tional status. Only 1 child was adopted intoa family with an annual income of less than$15,000, whereas 11 were placed in familiesearning more than $25,000 per year (1978figures). Both parents typically had collegedegrees. When employed, mothers of thesubjects held jobs such as teachers, advancedclerical workers, and social workers. Fathersof adoptees were characteristically employedas engineers, ministers, and teachers.

The subjects' average score was in the su-perior range on the VSMS also (M = 137;SD = 20) (see Table 1). The range of scoreswas from 86 to 186. A t test for the meandifference between subjects and the nor-mative groups was significant (/x.OOl).Performance on the VSMS was, in fact, rel-atively higher than performance on thePPVT. The first inclination was to attributethis to the one exceptionally high score. Evenif this score were excluded, however, themean would be 134.

The higher VSMS performance may berelated to the many items at the pre-school-age level that are motor dependent. That is,social skill at this age is more closely relatedto both gross and fine motor developmentand coordination than it is at later age levels.Examples are skills such as buttoning, han-dling table utensils, and going up and downstairs. The examiner observed that theadopted Asian children seemed to be accel-erated in motor development as compared

598 E. AUDREY CLARK AND JEANETTE HANISEE

with Anglo children of the same age. Parentsreported that some of the subjects who asbabies in institutions were too weak to sithad developed the capacity to pick up objectswith their toes and transfer them to theirhands. This would seem to constitute un-usual motor skill, especially in view of theinfants' already weakened condition.

The generally high scores of the groupraised the question of whether or not thechaos surrounding the early lives of the chil-dren could have yielded underestimates ofchronological age, which would have, inturn, been responsible for overestimation ofcompetence. Examination of the data re-vealed that of 13 children whose birth dateswere known, 10 were relinquished at birthto adoption agencies. Children with less-cer-tain birth dates were those found abandonedduring somewhat later infancy (3 to 12months). Since most of the children wereplaced with social agencies early in life, thereappears to have been relatively little oppor-tunity for gross errors in age estimation.

Another explanation of the unusually highscores on the VSMS might be some sort ofsystematic bias by the sole interviewer. Butretests of a small sample of the group 6months later verified that these childrenwere operating far above age expectations.The scores recorded by the second researcherwere consistently higher than those obtainedby the original investigator.

Another explanation of superior perfor-mance might be that the children were off-spring of better-than-average biogenetic

stock. No known selection process was in-volved to lend substance to such a suspicion,but it cannot be ruled out. Perhaps less-strong babies perished before adoption waspossible, given the grave environmental cir-cumstances that prevailed. Likewise, even ifsuperior biogenetics were implicated, theycould not be attributed to any single racialor ethnic group. More likely, the infants rep-resented a racial melange, with Asian origintheir only real common bond.

No significant correlation was found be-tween the subjects' scores on the PPVT andthe VSMS (see Table 2), perhaps becausethe scores of the sample were concentratedin the upper end of the range.

Correlations revealed that children whohad been hospitalized prior to adoptionachieved higher scores on the VSMS thantheir counterparts (r = .67, /><.01) andthat girls scored somewhat higher than boys(r = .55, p < .01). A history of hospitaliza-tion or sex was not significantly correlatedwith PPVT scores. Also, hospitalized chil-dren were both younger at time of placementand at time of testing than the group in itsentirety.

Presence of older siblings in the homemight have been expected to affect languageacquisition. No support was found for thisexpectation. The chi-square test betweenscores obtained on the PPVT and VSMS andpresence of siblings in the home at the timeof placement indicated no significant differ-ences.

When verification of results was at-

Table 2Pearson Correlation Coefficients Between Eight Variables Associated WithAsian-Born Adoptees

Variable 1 6"

1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.

Age at placementAge at testingMonths since placementFoster placementsSexHealth statusPVVTVSMS

— .18 -.09 .16.55 .05

-.05

.26

.22-.06-.04

-.47*-.49*-.27

.67*-.14

-.11-.18-.05

.10-.05

.27

-.12-.01-.05-.12

.55*

.67*

.20—

Note. PVVT = Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test; VSMS = Vineland Social Maturity Scale. N = 25."Males = 1; Females = 2.bWell = 1; hospitalized = 2.* p < .05.

ASIAN CHILDREN IN ADOPTIVE SETTINGS 599

tempted by reexamining a randomly selectedportion of the original subjects, the Pearsonproduct-moment correlation between thetwo examiners on the PPVT was .78. Thiscorresponds closely to the correlation of .77reported by Dunn (1965) for the two testforms. The test-retest correlation for theVSMS by the two examiners was .65. Test-retest correlations over a 6-month period forthe VSMS standardization group are un-available, but the 2-year test-retest corre-lation in the standardization is .57 (Doll,1953).

Although the group that was reexaminedwas admittedly small, the data collected pro-vided some assurance that the original re-sults were not grossly in error. Examinersagreed that the group of Asian adoptees per-formed better than had the original nor-mative groups.

It can be said of all scores and statisticaldata resulting from this study that no indi-cation was present of a disabling develop-mental delay in the sample group of adoptedAsian children. Performance on the PPVTand VSMS by the 25 Asian children adoptedby American parents gives reason to believethat participation of subjects in normal fam-ily and school activities in this countryshould be successful. It can also be said thatthere was sufficient evidence present in thepersonal backgrounds of the subjects to jus-tify developmental delay had it occurred.The results tend to substantiate the obser-vations of Clarke and Clarke (1976) andothers, who have noted the resiliency of chil-dren who have suffered seemingly great en-vironmental damage.

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Received February 26, 1981 •