Adopted children: the experience of loss and violent behaviour

Abstract

This paper examines the violence of adopted sons, a poorly explored form of domestic violence, outlining the phenomenon both in the case of the failure of the adoption process and in the perspective of identity formation, with a focus on the family dynamics that emerge in the phase of the family life cycle with an adolescent son. I analyze two types of violent behavior of children adopted from different ages: the Children Parent Violence (CPV), with an early or pre-pubertal onset, between 6 and 11 years, which escalates in adolescence, and the Adolescent Parent Violence (APV) where violence begins with puberty and grows rapidly.

Many studies have addressed this problem by investigating the bio-psycho-social factors that contribute to the violent behavior of adopted children towards adoptive parents, and the consequences of such conduct on the family system. The biological predisposition, the family dynamics and some psychodynamic processes are invoked. Violent behavior has been described in all its manifestations, up to the murder of parents adopted as the peak of interpersonal violence.