Children Process Adoption Throughout Early Years : Each stage of childhood has its own challenges; look for red flags that may indicate a need for treatment.

Unfortunately, she said, adopted teenagers may believe this as well and may engage in high-risk behavior as a subconscious way of identifying with their absent birth parents.

Adolescence is the time when most adopted children begin searching for their birth families. The advent of the Internet has made it much easier to do this and much easier to be secretive about it. It's important to monitor Internet use to forestall secrecy.

Adoptive parents need to understand and support the child's need to discover this very important part of his or her past, Dr Seligsohn said.