Adoptees' longterm outcomes: the Rotterdam Longitudinal Adoption Study in the Netherlands

Since the 1970s the number of international adoptions in the Netherlands has rapidly increased. Before 1970, adoptions in the Netherlands almost always concerned domestic adoptions. Several factors caused the rapid increase in international adoptions. First, the adoption law in the Netherlands was changed in 1968, creating more possibilities for international adoption. Second, in the 1970s more openness about adoption arose and as a result adoption was no longer a taboo. Third, there was a decline in domestic adoptions in the same period, due to more possibilities for and openness about birth control and due to more social acceptance and financial possibilities for women to raise children on their own. As a result, less Dutch children were available for adoption. Fourth, parents did not only want to adopt a child because of unwanted childlessness, but also because of idealistic motives. Through television in the 1960s, the misery of children in Third World countries and countries in war were shown and persuaded many parents to adopted a child out of idealistic motives (Verhulst - Versluisden Bieman, 1989; Hoksbergen, 1998, 2002).