Boarding Schools for Troubled Adopted Teen

Boarding Schools for Troubled Adopted Teens

Parenting difficult teenagers is stressful, struggling with an adopted teen can have added challenges that are expected. Troubled adopted teens typically have a frequent history of trauma, suicide rates, mental illness, and poorer academic performance.

Adopting a child is a beautiful gift, a decision that comes with a lot of love and sacrifice. Whether you have an adopted teenager or a biological teen — raising youth today is not for the faint of heart.

Since 2020 teen depression and anxiety has doubled, the U.S. surgeon general has called it an ‘urgent public health crisis’ – a devastating decline in the mental health of kids across the country.

Adopted teens are more likely to have a psychiatric diagnosis than non-adoptees, both because of trauma as well as increased chance of heritability.

Mental health effects of adopted teens:

Depression
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
Anxiety
Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD)
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Reactive attachment disorder (RAD)

Adoptees are at a four times higher rate of risk for suicide, according to one study.

Are you a parent of an adopted teenager searching for schools for troubled teens for your child and fear sending them away would cause abandonment issues?

This is a common concern for many adopted parents of teenagers when they are considering therapeutic boarding schools to help with adopted troubled teens.

Since 2001 we have been educating parents in choosing the most appropriate residential therapy for their individual teen or young adult. Searching for a behavioral boarding school or residential treatment center that specializes with adoption issues is a priority. These experts are trained to assist your teenager to manage their feelings and develop coping skills — which will help eliminate the fear of abandonment issues.

Part of this process in researching for the right school for your teen or young adult is interviewing parent references of other adopted teens that have already graduated the program. This can give you a level of comfort as well as insights of how the program works and benefits your child’s issues.

Most adopted teens will struggle with RAD, ODD, PTSD, trauma, anger, as well as other concerns such as screen addiction. Some teens that are adopted may also start questioning who they are and start identifying more with their peers than with their family.

Choosing a boarding school for troubled teens that is not all-adopted students is most beneficial. It is more successful to have programs with experts that specialize with the issues that comes with adoption, rather than having all adopted students start feeding off each other. Your adopted teenager is likely to enter with one set of issues and return with new ones. Finding a boarding schools that works with students similar to your teenager’s mental health needs should be a priority.