Many children who are adopted internationally into the USA spent time in an institution prior to adoption. While the majority of adoptees fall within the normal range of adjustment, post-institutional (PI) children have been found to have higher rates of peer difficulties than non-adopted parent-reared children, they may display indiscriminate friendliness and difficulty understanding social cues and social boundaries, and they may have difficulty with self-regulation which is likely to relate to social skills (Gunnar, 2001; Gunnar, van Dulmen, & The International Adoption Project Team, 2007; Rutter and the ERA Study Team, 1998; Rutter, Kreppner, & O'Connor, 2001). The purpose of this study was to examine the parent-reported social skills (using the Social Skills Rating System; Gresham & Elliott, 1990) of children adopted to the USA from Russian orphanages that were primarily deficient in their social-emotional environments (The St. Petersburg-USA Orphanage Research Team, 2008). PI children who were adopted before 18 months had higher/better scores than children adopted after 18 months, and there does not appear to be a significant decrease in social skills with later ages (e.g., 24+ months) at adoption, suggesting a step function at 18 months of age at adoption. Further, the Elementary school age sample had higher/better scores than the Secondary school age sample
