Educational Achievement in Adopted Children from China

A sample of 77 adopted children from China and a matched sample of 77 Norwegian-born children were tested for educational achievement. The results did not show any significant differences between the two groups either in educational performance or in any other related areas. The findings are in contrast to other studies showing that international adoptees as a group have lower performance than non-adoptees. The study did show a greater disparity within the adopted group's performance compared to the Norwegian-born group. Similar results have been found in other studies in this field. Adopted children's academic language skills and the level of hyperactive behavior explained most of the disparity in their educational performance. Age of adoption did not have an effect on adopted children's educational performance, their language skills or problem behavior.