Adopted Youth Comprise 25-40% of Troubled Teen Facilities

Adopted children, who represent about 2 percent of American youth, make up an estimated 25 to 40 percent of those placed in residential treatment centers, wilderness programs and boarding schools within the troubled teen industry, according to experts. These for-profit facilities, often loosely regulated, have drawn scrutiny for marketing treatments to address behavioral issues in adoptees, sometimes leading to years of institutionalization marked by allegations of abuse.

Parents typically decide unilaterally to send children to these programs, with no judicial oversight or fixed duration. Facilities charge up to $20,000 a month, frequently promoting therapy for reactive attachment disorder, or RAD, as a solution for preteens and teenagers exhibiting behavioral challenges. However, experts contend that RAD is extremely rare and applies primarily to children under age 5 who experienced severe early neglect, such as in understaffed foreign orphanages, resulting in profound withdrawal.

"The diagnosis has been too corrupted," said Brian Allen, a psychologist directing the mental health program at Penn State's Center for the Protection of Children. His clinic reviewed 100 adopted and...