Due to adverse preadoption condition internationally adopted children are delayed in their development and expose more behavior problems than non-adopted children (Juffer & van Ijzendoorn 2005). This is especially true for children adopted from Eastern Europe (Rutter et al. 2010). There is a need to know more about the development of children adopted from non-European countries (Jacobs et al. 2010).

This Poster presents results from an ongoing longitudinal study of 119 internationally adopted children from non-European countries during their two first years in Norway. Several developmental scales are included in the study: General development (Ages & Stages, ASQ) focusing on communication, gross and fine motor development; temperamental characteristics (Buss & Plomin, EAS) focusing on emotionality, activity and shyness; and behavior problems focusing on physical and non-physical challenging behavior.

The adopted children in this study are delayed in their general development at time of adoption compared to standard norms. The between age comparison show that although the children are progressing in their development they still lag behind at age two. The temperamental characteristics seem very stable from time of adoption and up to age two. The children expose generally low frequency of behavior problems. However, the behavior problems have changed during the two years. At time of adoption the children show more non-physical challenging behavior while at age two their physical challenging behavior has increased.