The educational aspirations and psychological well-being of adopted young people in the UK

Abstract

Much is hypothesised but little is known about the effects of early adversity on school experience, academic attainment and career aspiration for children and young people adopted from care. Drawing on data from Wave 1 of the Youth (10‒15 years old) Questionnaire (n = 4899) from the United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Survey (UKHLS), also known as Understanding Society, this study explored differences between young people adopted (n = 22) and a matched comparison group (n = 110) on measures of educational and occupational aspirations and psychological well-being. Adopted young people reported higher externalising and total difficulties scores (based on the SDQ, Goodman, 1997) than the general population comparison group, but equivalent internalising symptoms. Adopted children were more likely to show an intention to seek full-time work at the end of compulsory schooling. These findings align with previous research regarding the psychological well-being of adopted children, contribute new knowledge about the aspirations of young people adopted from care and highlight methodological issues when utilising large-scale panel survey data for narrowly defined sub-groups.

Keywords

Adoption education aspiration academic attainment school experience

Introduction

Ascertaining levels of psychological well-being and educational aspirations may be useful for understanding variation in academic outcomes for disadvantaged and vulnerable groups. Children whose developmental trajectory can be skewed by the persistent and enduring effects of early trauma (e.g. abuse, neglect, family stress, loss, inter-parental violence), including children adopted from care by unrelated adults, form such a group. Children for whom alternative care provision is sought are therefore prone to having a range of complex physical and psychological needs (Anda, et al., 2006) that will potentially impact across many domains of development.

On the whole, adopted children benefit from placement into a stable and nurturing environment (Palacios and Brodzinsky, 2010). In the extreme, those experiencing severe pre-adoption deprivation in institutions make ‘astonishing’ (van IJzendoorn and Juffer, 2006: 1233) catch-up in terms of physical growth and significant gains in terms of IQ, cognitive function, behaviour, language development and school performance, with adoption consequently viewed as a successful mode of intervention. Gains apply to children who are domestically or internationally adopted when compared to non-adopted peers or siblings (van IJzendoorn, Juffer and Poelhuis, 2005).

In school, however, experiences of adversity or trauma may manifest into behaviours which are detrimental to academic progress and social development including hyper-vigilance, defiance, aggression, controlling behaviour, lack of organisation, attention and empathy, dissociation and inability to form and maintain friendships (Phillips, 2007). Further, these difficulties at school can lead to complications in adulthood, particularly in relation to mental health problems and low educational attainment (van der Vegt, et al., 2009); recent figures from the Department for Education (DFE) show that 64% of all pupils achieve the expected threshold at GCSE compared to 35% for children adopted from care (DfE, 2018a; 2018b). Leaving care studies also indicate continuing difficulties for vulnerable children after compulsory education, with one-third of young people aged 19 who were looked after at 16, not in education, employment or training (DfE, 2011). Very few young people (6%) from a care background go on to higher education (DfE, 2015), compared to 43% for the general school population (Harrison, 2017).

Research that examines education outcomes and aspirations for looked after children may be informative for considering these features for adopted children, given that the latter experience similar levels of pre-care adversity. The concept of resilience serves as an explanatory mechanism for understanding the attainment gap between looked after children and the general school population. Though resilience is a personal quality which enables individuals to successfully overcome significant adversity despite exposure to multiple high risk (and high stress) situations, its quality is influenced by repeated interactions with positive features of the immediate context (Gilligan, 2004). These contextual factors include the utilisation of internal assets (e.g. coping skills, self-efficacy) and external resources embedded in social interventions. Similarly, recent research has identified mitigation of the impact of early adversity through protective factors including the formation of attachments and good family relationships in the adoptive placement, regardless of maltreatment type and quality of foster care placement (Cage, 2018).

Educational resilience, specifically, represents the increased chance of school success despite adverse environmental conditions both at home and sometimes school. One key factor in developing educational resilience is the consistent presence of an adult in school (external resource) who regards the young person positively, reframes perceptions of social situations and adversity so that beneficial and compromising effects are recognised, and facilitates opportunities to engage with the school and wider community (South, et al., 2016). These factors develop a sense of belonging to the school which, in turn, provides the secure base essential to a strong sense of resilience. High levels of school connectedness not only lead to increased academic performance, motivation and emotional well-being, but can also serve as a protective factor against health risks (Gilligan, 2000). In addition, Stein (2008) suggests that children who are best equipped to overcome adversity have a sense of agency (internal asset) as they transition into adulthood and that positive interactions with family, community (including school) and culture promote educational resilience.

Psychological well-being

Research literature typically categorises childhood psychological problems into two broad groups to encompass behavioural, emotional and social difficulties. Internalising symptoms include lack of emotional control, anxiety, low self-esteem and depression, whereas externalising problems comprise aggression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), conduct and oppositional disorders (Achenbach, et al., 2016). Several studies have demonstrated that higher levels of externalising problems (even at a young age) predict lower educational achievement in adolescence; internalising symptoms appear to have a shorter-term effect on early academic achievement, but may be exacerbated by early academic failure (Deighton, et al., 2018).

Differences between adopted and non-adopted children in relation to internalising and externalising behaviours are well documented (e.g. Palacios, Moreno and Roman, 2013) but with mixed results. Some earlier studies suggested that adopted children showed more difficulties in total and externalising problems but not internalising symptoms (e.g. Brodzinsky, Smith and Brodzinsky, 1998). However, more recent studies have demonstrated by using meta-analysis that adopted children fare less well in terms of total, externalising and internalising problems when compared to non-adoptive comparison groups (Wiley, 2017). Variation of findings between studies may be attributable, for example, to sample design (i.e. clinical sample) or to the nature of comparisons made (between children adopted from domestic welfare systems or private adoption to those with extreme pre-adoption adversity).

In a systematic review of recent research examining adopted children’s school performance and experience, Brown and colleagues (2017) found that, compared to non-adopted comparison groups, adoption was associated with higher levels of behaviour problems and lower academic attainment across childhood, adolescence and emerging adulthood (Brown, Waters and Shelton, 2017). But most striking was the paucity of studies examining education-related outcomes for UK adopted children, strengthening the call for future research to address this major knowledge gap. The researchers suggested that the lack of attention in this area may be explained, in some part, by the difficulty in the UK of establishing a robust and comprehensive national picture of adopted children’s academic outcomes to the same level as for looked after children.

Local authorities in England and Wales have a legal duty to report annually to central government on looked after children’s psychological well-being (through the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire [SDQ], Goodman, 1997) and academic attainment (through the annual school census). This requirement ceases when children are adopted and their academic progress is subsumed into the general population. This means they are no longer an identifiable group for monitoring and analysis. Thus, there is a gap in knowledge about current school performance, psychological outcomes and awareness of how related issues manifest in the school setting for children and young people adopted from the care system, both in the UK and internationally (Soares, et al., 2017). Given that adopted children experience similar levels of pre-care adversity as looked after children and that this adversity may have comparable implications for subsequent school performance (including behavioural adjustment and academic attainment), the lack of equivalent central monitoring is a serious concern.

Aspirations

Increasing opportunities for social mobility is an important factor in addressing issues of inequality and social justice and continues to be a focus for policymakers, researchers and commentators (Goodman, Gregg and Washbrook, 2011). The publication of the Milburn Review (Milburn, 2012) highlighted a stalling of social mobility in the UK and indicated that an advantaged social background provides access to higher professions. Raising educational aspirations to improve social mobility has therefore received increased attention (Croll and Attwood, 2013). A recent YouGov survey of 4723 adults in the UK (Gov.UK, 2017) confirmed that the decline of social mobility is a concern, particularly for young people (aged 18‒24 years) as 70% believe it is becoming more difficult to ‘move up’ in society.

Explanations for social mobility include structural and deterministic beliefs where social standing is passed down through generations and educational disadvantage persists across generations, acting as a barrier to social mobility (Croll and Attwood, 2013). Many solutions to this problem have focused on raising educational attainment among disadvantaged families by fostering positive aspirations, as opposed to improving attainment through cognitive development (e.g. by improving reading skills), although there is scant evidence of their effectiveness to improve academic outcomes in this way (Taylor and Rampino, 2014).

Metsäpelto and colleagues (2017) link higher levels of externalising problem behaviours to lower levels of educational aspiration through the mediating role of reading skills. They suggest that disruptive behaviours exhibited in the classroom lead to poor development of basic academic skills (e.g. reading) and a steady process of disengagement from school, increasing the risk of school dropout. High levels of externalising problems at a young age may lead to ‘adjustment erosion’ (Moilanen, Shaw and Maxwell, 2010: 636) where lower academic competence later in life persists despite a decrease in externalising behaviours with age. Positive educational aspiration may be conceptualised as a component of academic success. As children progress through school, beliefs about the importance of schooling and ideas regarding future education are developed, largely in response to their experiences of the school context but also the influence of home factors. Therefore, pupils’ views of their school and schoolwork are important when considering how forming higher values of learning and school subjects facilitate more positive educational aspirations (Viljaranta, et al., 2009).

In a large-scale survey of nearly 4000 school children across the primary and secondary age range, Hay and colleagues (2015) identified five factors that influence the formation of educational aspirations: parent support, students’ English ability, teacher support, students’ level of confidence about school and students’ mathematical ability. These factors were found to be compensatory, in that negative effects in one factor could be mitigated by positive effects in another. Quality of school experience, including teacher‒pupil relationships and home‒school connections, not only appears to be a key element in general well-being but also in forming aspirations that facilitate social mobility. They recommended that interventions aimed at raising aspirations should not be seen as a ‘quick fix’, but be multi-dimensional and implemented over time. What is unclear is how these factors contribute to pupil well-being and influence the formation of educational and occupational aspirations for adopted children.

On the one hand, if adopted children have higher levels of externalising problems than their peers in the general population, academic progress may be compromised, reducing educational resilience and lowering educational aspirations, with possible implications for social mobility. On the other hand, given that adoptive parents provide ‘richer’ home environments and are more likely to have higher socio-economic status, higher levels of education and exert greater influence over education and occupation aspirations than non-adoptive families (Hamilton, Cheng and Powell, 2007), it might be expected that this positive environment enables adopted children to flourish generally, with additional gains seen in school settings through developing greater educational resilience. However, in the absence of complete, centrally collated quantitative data and a paucity of recent and relevant UK empirical studies, resolution of this quandary is not forthcoming. Focus, therefore, turns to retrospective analysis of a large, nationally representative dataset, from an established longitudinal population study, to elucidate UK adopted children’s educational and occupational aspirations and behavioural and emotional adjustment.

Research questions

The present study addressed whether there are differences between adopted and general population groups of children in:

self-rated levels of psychological mental health and well-being, specifically internalising symptoms, externalising behaviours and general well-being;

aspirations for continuing post-16 education;

occupational aspiration.

Method

Sample

Data were taken from Wave 1 of the United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Survey (UKHLS), also known as Understanding Society (University of Essex, 2016). Commencing in 2009, the survey collects data from over 30,000 households over a period of 24 months for each wave. Its design has a complex weighting strategy¹ that extends its research potential over traditional longitudinal cohort designs and enables robust generalisations to the UK population (Buck and McFall, 2011).²

Household members aged 10 to 15 years were asked to participate in a youth questionnaire and 4899 were completed in wave one. Three levels of filial relationship, including adoption status, were initially ascertained: adopted, step-adoption and non-adopted. For the purposes of the present analysis, step-adoptions were subsumed into the non-adopted category leaving two levels of filial relationship: adopted and non-adopted. A non-adopted comparison group was created through one-to-many matching (cases matched on age, sex, ethnicity and country of residence) with each case matched to five controls to maximise power and to counter the small sample size of the adopted group (Austin, 2008). Thus, the final sample for analysis consisted of an adopted group (n = 22) and a general population comparison group (n = 110). Descriptive data for each group are shown in Table 1.

Table 1.

Demographics of youth questionnaire responses.

		Filial relationship
		General population (weighted n = 102)	Adopted (weighted n = 24)
	Age Mean (SD)	12.59 (1.5)	12.34 (1.67)
Sex n (%)	Male	42 (41.2)	11 (45.8)
Sex n (%)	Female	60 (58.8)	13 (54.2)
Country n (%)	England	92 (90.2)	20 (83.3)
	Wales	1 (1.0)	1 (4.2)
	Scotland	9 (8.8)	3 (12.5)
	Northern Ireland	0	0
		General population (weighted n = 102)	Adopted (weighted n = 25)
Ethnicity² n (%)	White	66 (64.7)	14 (56.0)
	Black Caribbean	4 (3.9)	1 (4.0)
	Mixed & Other	10 (9.8)	4 (16.0)
	Not known	22 (21.6)	6 (24.0)

Note: Applied weights are calculated on the whole sample; subsamples will not then resolve into the same numbers of the national population. Full details are available from the first author.

Measures

Emotional and behavioural well-being

The youth self-completion questionnaire included the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) (Goodman, 1997), an established and validated screening tool for emotional and behavioural well-being in children and young people. The SDQ comprises responses to 25 attributes on a three–point Likert scale (‘Not true’, ‘Somewhat true’ and ‘Certainly true’). The 25 items are divided between five subscales: Emotional symptoms, Conduct problems, Hyperactivity/inattention, Peer relationship problems and Pro-social behaviour. Each subscale has a possible range of scores from 0 to 10.

As there is mixed empirical support for the five-factor structure of the SDQ particularly when used in ‘low-risk’ community samples (Goodman, Lamping and Ploubidis, 2010), an alternative factor structure that combines the emotional and peer scales into an ‘internalising symptoms’ composite scale and an ‘externalising problems’ scale from the conduct and hyperactivity scales was used (Goodman, Lamping and Ploubidis, 2010). Each composite scale is a summation of the two subscales yielding a range of possible scores from 0 to 20. It was decided to use these composite scales because the Understanding Society dataset could be considered a ‘low-risk’ community sample and the aim of the present study was to explore presence or absence of broader issues that have been shown to affect education experience and performance. The internal consistency estimates for the two scales was acceptable.³ A total difficulties score was obtained by summing subscale scores on all but the Prosocial subscale, yielding scores that could range from 0 to 40. In the present study, 98.9% (n = 4844) of 10‒15-year-olds who completed the youth survey also completed the SDQ.

General well-being

The Understanding Society survey ascertained feelings of a general sense of well-being using six questions. Respondents were asked to rate how they felt about their family, friends, school, schoolwork, appearance and life as a whole on a seven-point Likert scale. A lower total score indicates a more positive sense of well-being. These items have been shown to capture a general sense of well-being and be good predictors of educational aspirations (Hartas, 2016).

Aspirations: educational and occupational

The perceived importance of performance in examinations at the end of compulsory education (Standard grades for Scotland and GCSE for the rest of the UK) was ascertained. Respondents were also asked questions relating to educational aspiration. For the purposes of this analysis, responses were coded to reflect either a desire to work full time or continue with education in some form (full time, part time or part time with working); aspiration to further or higher education was a dichotomous variable coded either ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

A free-response item to ascertain occupational aspiration was also asked: ‘What job would you like to do once you leave school or finish full-time education?’ These responses were re-coded by the first author into one of the nine major SOC2010 groups (e.g. Professional occupations, Skilled trades occupations; ONS, 2017) on a hierarchical scale from one to nine, a lower number reflecting a higher status occupation (Flouri and Panourgia, 2012).

Results and discussion

Using data from a nationally representative, large cohort survey, this study sought to elucidate differences in psychological well-being and educational and occupational aspirations for adopted and non-adopted young people in the UK. Preliminary assumption checking was carried out for each variable and appropriate adjustments made. Any adjustments that affected the overall outcome of the analysis are recorded below. (Full details are available from the first author.)

Psychological well-being

Adopted children reported significantly higher levels than the matched non-adopted comparison group, of externalising behaviour (8.67 ± 3.39 vs 6.53 ± 3.21 respectively)⁴ and total difficulties (13.81 ± 5.03 vs 11.26 ± 5.24 respectively).⁵ Similar findings among previous studies exploring externalising behaviour in adopted children and adolescents have been found (e.g. Zill and Bramlett, 2014). The skewed developmental journey of care experienced children may explain the raised levels of externalising behaviour seen in our analysis and align with previous reports of classroom behaviours commonly observed in children who have experienced adverse care at some point in their lives. While adopted children may benefit from permanency, the persistent and enduring effects of early adverse experiences may be overwhelming in certain contexts (such as the classroom) or domains of functioning (such as concentration); these effects can be experienced simultaneously thus compounding the challenges faced by adopted children (and their teachers) in the classroom on a day-to-day basis.

In contrast, adopted and non-adopted children scored similarly on the internalising symptoms scale (5.13 ± 2.85 vs 4.74 ± 3.57 respectively);⁶ this was unexpected because previous research has indicated higher levels of emotional problems in adopted children (Sanchez-Sandoval and Palacios, 2012). While the SDQ is validated for use with both community and clinical samples (Goodman, et al., 2000), it does not specifically address behaviours that are apparent in children who have experienced early trauma and severe adversity, including attachment-related difficulties, anxiety and dissociative responses to trauma, age-inappropriate sexual behaviour and self-harm (Tarren-Sweeney, 2013) and this may partly explain this disparity. Similar scores between the two groups (adopted 14.23 ± 3.89; non-adopted 13.16 ± 4.83)⁷ on the General well-being scale (coupled with equivalent internalising symptom scores) might suggest that the challenges for adopted children in school may be primarily of an externalising nature, at least for this age group. However, internalising symptoms and externalising behaviour often co-occur (Sanchez-Sandoval and Palacios, 2012) and further investigation utilising purposeful research design is called for.

One significant factor is that the timing of adoptive placements rarely coincides with the usual entry points for school; adoptive children’s move to a new school may exacerbate their feelings of being different as they try to fit into new social groups (Peake, 2006). It may be that this inconsistency of educational provision has a detrimental effect on school performance manifested in elevated levels of externalising behaviour. However, this point may be moot as the average age for adoption at the time of survey was three years and 11 months (DfE, 2014), which is before the start of compulsory schooling in the UK; whether adoption affects children’s socialisation in pre-school childcare settings (particularly if it is attached to a primary school) has yet to be explored in a systematic manner.

Effective interventions aimed at supporting adopted children in the classroom and wider school environment should, therefore, take into account the impact of early adversity, including trauma and loss, on psychological well-being. Psychological distress can manifest as behaviours that are familiar to practitioners and may lead to the unsuccessful application of traditional methods of intervention (e.g. those grounded in behaviourist principles such as sticker charts). Taking into account the antecedents of such behaviour, and responding appropriately, will build trust in the teacher‒pupil relationship and over time may improve chances of successful school experience, not least through facilitating educational resilience. Recent changes to the Children and Social Work Act 2017 confirm the importance of understanding the deleterious effects of early trauma, particularly for adopted children, by widening the remit of virtual school heads to include this group.

Educational aspiration

The youth questionnaire was completed by young people aged 10 to 15 years and adolescence is a pivotal time for forming aspirations (Metsäpelto, et al., 2017), which are affected by prior academic achievement (particularly performance in key examinations), ability of current peer group, parental socio-economic status, ethnicity, levels of home enrichment and unemployment (Sammons, Toth and Sylva, 2016). These effects did not appear to manifest in the outcomes of the present analysis as both groups placed similar importance on performing well in end of compulsory school exams (adopted 1.26 ± 0.44; non-adopted 1.35 ± 0.59),⁸ possibly suggesting a common sense of engagement and connectedness to education ‒ or perhaps reproduction of a well-rehearsed message. Absence of a difference between groups may also be explained by the sample size of the adopted group. Wijedasa and Selwyn (2011) analysed responses from a similar sample (in terms of size and background characteristics) in the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE) and found comparable positive attitudes towards school for adopted (n = 34), non-adopted (n = 15,626) and children in care (n = 55). Although these results are indicative, a more nuanced tool to establish levels of school connectedness or engagement may be needed to amplify differences between these groups.

Post-compulsory education aspirations

One finding that did stand out was that adopted children were more likely than the non-adopted comparison group to show an intention to seek full-time work at the end of compulsory education (33% adopted children compared to 7% non-adopted)⁹ as opposed to a route that involved education in some form. The vast majority of respondents across both groups intended to study in some way after 16 but the proportion who intend to work full time at 16 was larger in the adopted group. Lower educational aspirations in this group may contribute to this difference. Previous studies have demonstrated elevated levels of emotional and behavioural difficulties in adopted children and these, combined with a less favourable experience of school, may lead to a desire to leave education and pursue full-time employment post-16. Further exploration into the contributory factors for educational aspirations of adopted children is therefore warranted through more nuanced design to highlight key aspects for this vulnerable group.

For those who indicated a desire to continue education in some form, the intended route involves college or university, although there is some ambiguity in how the item is constructed. It is unclear from the question wording how post-16 education was interpreted because ‘college’ could mean A-levels or other courses leading to higher education. Alternatively it could also represent vocational training.

Occupational aspiration

The free response question regarding employment desirability was completed by 83% of all respondents (n = 110). Table 2 presents proportions for SOC2010 major groups according to filial relationship. There was no association between adopted and non-adopted adolescents and their stated desired occupation.¹⁰

Table 2.

Occupational desirability (n (%)).

SOC2010 Major Group	General populationn = 91	Adoptedn = 19
Managers, directors and senior officials	4 (4.4)	0
Professional occupations	32 (35.2)	6 (31.6)
Associate professional and technical occupations	33 (36.3)	6 (31.6)
Administrative and secretarial occupations	2 (2.2)	0
Skilled trades occupations	5 (5.5)	3 (15.8)
Caring, leisure and other service occupations	11 (12.1)	4 (21.1)
Sales and customer service occupations	4 (4.4)	0
Process, plant and machine operatives	0	0
Elementary occupations	0	0

Our findings indicate that none of the adopted group aspired to management roles and fewer, compared with the non-adopted group, considered the professions. More of the adopted children were interested in the category that included caring roles relative to the comparison group. The notion that the ‘richer’ home environments of adoptive families, including parental investment (Hamilton, Cheng and Powell, 2007), contribute to aspirational values of occupational status appears inconsistent with these findings. However, a wide-ranging examination of career choice among adopted children and its relationship with psychological well-being, educational aspiration and educational resilience warrants greater exploration. In our analysis, adopted children represented a more even distribution across the range of occupational status, but this is likely to be a further consequence of the small sample size. Further investigation into these relationships is called for to provide the robust evidence needed to inform the development of appropriate interventions at school level and fashion policies that allow children adopted from care opportunities for social mobility.

Further research

Developmental progress can be severely affected by exposure to pre-natal parental substance misuse, particularly the effects of over-exposure to alcohol (Phillips, 2004). Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) are the most common non-hereditary cause of learning disability (May and Gossage, 2001) and can result in physical and neuro-behavioural difficulties such as hyperactivity, tremor, executive dysfunction and sensory integration challenges (Autti-Rämö, 2002), some of which are often used when describing adopted children’s school-related behaviour (Sharma, McGue and Benson, 1996). In 2016, the initial category of need for 70% of children adopted from care was abuse or neglect (DfE, 2016) and because substance misuse is a common element of many cases (Brandon, Bailey and Belderson, 2010), it is likely to form a contributory factor in the ability of some adopted children to function well in school. More focused and empirically robust research is required to elucidate these relationships.

Limitations

The present study confirms previous research findings on the psychological well-being of adopted children but some limitations are noted. First, the Understanding Society dataset suffers similar problems as previous large cohort studies (e.g. Raleigh and Kao, 2013) where adoption is not the primary focus of participant recruitment or analysis. The resulting group sizes mean that the loss of statistical power associated with small sample sizes should be considered when interpreting the results. Secondly, it is not possible, in this dataset, to determine an accurate or reliable age at adoption or establish the severity of early adversity ‒ key factors in determining successful adjustment after adoption (Zill and Bramlett, 2014). However, the opportunity to examine specific outcomes for adopted children identified in a nationally representative dataset is rare.

A further limitation rests in the formulation of concepts explored in the Understanding Society questionnaire. For example, it is unclear from the way questions are worded how ‘adoption’ may be understood by respondents in the main adult survey. Without differentiating between adoption type (e.g. from the public care system, intercountry adoption, kinship adoption and step-adoption) in the main survey, a nuanced analysis is impossible. In addition, Goodman and colleagues (2000) recommend a multi-informant approach in using the SDQ, due to the context-dependent nature of psychological problems and amelioration of inconsistent responses between informants (Vaz, et al., 2016), yet the Understanding Society survey uses the youth self-report version exclusively; it would seem that there is credible opportunity to include the parent/carer version in the main adult questionnaire.

Conclusion

This study sought to explore differences between young people adopted from the public care system or living with birth/step-parents on measures of psychological well-being, educational aspiration and desired occupation. Our analysis contributes to emerging discussions about how the school experience (including aspirational values) of children adopted from care in the UK may be affected by the legacy of early adversity. It is clear from existing evidence that an attainment gap between adopted and non-adopted children persists and it is likely that pre-adoption experiences make an enduring contribution to it. Pertinent analysis of its complexities may provide much needed insight for policymakers and practitioners to further develop opportunities that enable the attainment gap to be closed. Key to the quality of the future research base is purposeful design (including the primacy of adoptee voice) that allows specific analysis of factors directly relating to adopted children and their attainment, school experience and occupational aspirations.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Katy Huxley, Ian Thomas and Rhys Davies ADRC, Wales, and Neil Harrison of the Rees Centre, Oxford for analytical guidance and Deborah Wiltshire of the UK Data Service regarding survey design.

Notes

Andrew Brown is a doctoral student in the School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Wales, UK.

Cerith S Waters lectures in the same School of Psychology and the Child and Family Psychology and Psychological Therapies Service, Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, Wales, UK.

Katherine H Shelton is a Reader in the School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Wales, UK.

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