The Changing Environment of Adoption Practice: Focus on Intercountry Adoption to the United States

This article reviews the history of domestic and international adoption, examines international agreements and U.S. statutes that govern intercountry adoption, and assesses the current landscape of adoption agency practice, with major emphasis on the United States. The article focuses specifically on environmental factors that have driven change in both practice and policy concerning international adoption. The theoretical lens of population ecology offers a helpful perspective on the demographic and cultural trends that have transformed adoption and adoption agencies, particularly as they shifted toward international placements beginning in the mid-twentieth century.     

Ethical Adoption Practice

Abstract

Dr. Paul Denhalter completed his doctoral candidacy research on adoptive family attachment and entitlement. Nineteen parents were interviewed about what elements of adoptive family life contributed to a sense of entitlement. The act of care giving increased entitlement; negative comments from others about adoption tended to decrease it. In his social work practice, Dr. Denhalter counseled adoptive and birth families and advocated education, counseling and support for successful open adoption relationships. His positive perspective on adoption included his father's adoption at age five. Dr. Denhalter was critical of the current trends in adoption that have pathologized adoption for political purposes. He emphasized the results of the Search Institute's study that had positive conclusions about adopted children as well as a blueprint for successful adoptive families to follow.     

Domestic and International Transracial Adoption: A Synopsis of the Literature

While adoptions are as ‘old as humanity itself’, transracial adoptions are a fairly recent phenomenon, particularly in the United States. This article reviews the state of transracial adoption research through an examination of the domestic and international transracial adoption literatures. Special attention is paid to the controversy that erupted in the 1970s over Black–White adoption placements and to the emergence of international adoption as the dominant form of transracial adoption.     

International Adoption: Counseling and the Adoption Triad

Despite a 60-plus–year history of international adoption (IA) placements, the body of research exploring counseling and psychological interventions for those affected by IA is still in its infancy. This critical review of the state of the literature addresses research, theory, and practice relevant to the international adoption triad (adoptive parents, birth parents, and adoptees). We highlight the lack of empirical attention to the clinical needs of birth parents, the tendency to overlook the clinical needs of adoptive parents both pre- and post-adoption, early childhood vulnerability in international adoptees, and adolescent identity challenges and the attendant clinical issues.     

Key Issues in Adoption Legislation

SUMMARY

This paper examines the underlying assumptions associated with two key areas of adoption legislation where there is variation across jurisdictions and calls for change. These legislative issues are consent and openness. In each area, there is very little social research which might otherwise offer insight into how to best formulate legislation in a way that would serve the needs of various members of the adoption experience. The primary goal of this paper is to consider key legal issues associated with consent and openness and make recommendations for how research might provide important information that could serve as guides for a legislative reevaluation of these areas.     

The International Adoption Experience: Do They Live Happily Ever After?

This study presents the perspective of parents who adopted children internationally and their now adult adopted children regarding the impact of international adoption on their lives. Areas explored include adaptation of the child and family, challenges experienced along the way, influence on various aspects of their lives, parent-child relationship, rewards and regrets associated with the adoption experience, recommendations for those considering international adoptions, and an adjective that would describe their journey. The outcome illuminates the success of international adoptions and the life-changing bond that is formed when parents and children transcend all boundaries to form a family to call their own.     

Conceptions of Family and Adoption Among Older Adoptees

ABSTRACT

Research on older child adoptions that incorporates the adoptee's perspective is noticeably absent from the literature. Drawing on the theoretical, clinical and empirical literature on children's understanding of family and adoption, this paper reports a study that examined older adoptees' conceptions of family and adoption relative to nonadopted peers. Interviews with 15 children adopted between ages 8 and 11 and a sample of 15 demographically matched nonadopted children (47% male; 84% Caucasian, 13% African American, 3% Biracial Asian/American) provided data that were analyzed for differences in children's understanding and elaboration of family and adoption concepts. Although no group differences were found in children's basic understanding of family or adoption, differences emerged in children's ratings of the acceptability and typicality of family constellations, as well as in the nature of concept elaboration. Older adoptees were more likely to accept and view as typical nontraditional family constellations. Whereas nonadopted children relied more on biological themes, older adoptees' concept elaboration was qualitatively richer, reflecting their varied birth family and foster care experiences. Within-group comparisons among older adoptees revealed differences: Children with more experience in foster care and children who lived in the adoptive home longer displayed higher levels of family understanding and a more realistic perspective of the permanence of the placement. Implications for future research and adoption service delivery are discussed.     

Adoption Preparation

ABSTRACT

A sizable proportion of special needs adoptions result in a disruption/dissolution or a displacement. Researchers emphasize the importance of comprehensive preparation to support adoption adjustment. This article examines the differential receipt of preparatory services based upon child and family characteristics and the child's risk history. Analyses of three types of preparatory services identified through factor analysis, including general, biological, and behavioral information/services, confirm differential preparation of adoptive families. However, three variables were predictive of receipt of all types of preparation, including type of adoption, kinship status, and pre-adoptive risk history. Implications for practice and research are presented.     

The Value of Adoption

ABSTRACT

Recent work shows that the governmental cost of adoption is about half the cost of long-term foster care for children whose birth parents' rights have been terminated. Because adoption is also associated with greater accumulation of human and social capital, the total savings to government in areas such as special education and criminal justice is of the same magnitude as the child welfare savings. The private benefit to adopted children in terms of additional income earned over their working lives is similarly large. In all, a dollar spent on the adoption of a child from foster care yields about three dollars in benefits.     

Pubertal Timing as a Potential Mediator of Adoption Effects on Problem Behaviors

Adopted children show more problem behaviors than nonadopted children. Given that internationally adopted individuals show earlier puberty than nonadopted individuals, and early puberty is associated with problem behaviors in nonadopted youth, we analyzed data from adopted domestic adoptees to determine whether problem behaviors could be explained by differences in pubertal timing. Relative to nonadopted controls (n = 153), domestically adopted girls (n = 121) had earlier menarche, earlier sexual initiation, and more conduct disorder symptoms. Age at menarche partially mediated the relation of adoptive status to sexual initiation, but not to conduct disorder symptoms. Extending findings from international adoptees, results show that domestic adoption is also linked to earlier puberty, and suggest early puberty as one mechanism linking adoption to problematic outcomes.     

Exploitation of Intercountry Adoption: Toward Common Understanding and Action

The conflation of various illicit intercountry adoption activities under the umbrella of “child trafficking” has caused confusion in the adoption literature. Utilizing a pragmatic approach, this article explores the cacophony of opinions that have arisen with regard to trafficking in illicit adoption activities and identifies the concept of exploitation as a useful framework for differentiating among them. To improve and increase the accuracy of research, policy, and programming, the authors suggest the new labels child trafficking, the sale of children, birth mother trafficking, and abuse of process for use in identifying and discussing different forms illicit adoption.     

The Impact of Adoption on the New Parents' Marriage

ABSTRACT

This literature review examines the effect of adoption on the new parents' marriage. There are many factors in common with the transition to biological parenthood. A general decline in marital satisfaction is related to the partners' ability to balance marital and parental roles, to expectations about the division of housework and child care, and to time demands. Adoptive parents' marriages are also affected by infertility and its investigation. Adoption, especially of older children, adds further strains, including differing responses to the child's acting-out behavior. Social support, including parent relief, can enhance a marriage. The paper also discusses needed research and implications for practice.     

Approaching Adoption and Foster Care in Brazil

Adoption and foster care have recently undergone various changes in Brazil. Nonetheless, there is a lack of official research data on children who have been adopted or have been living in foster families or institutions. In this paper, after a brief account of the historical aspects of adoption and foster care in Brazil, we focus our discussion on two major points: (1) the difficulties in promoting a “new culture of adoption,” which would develop in “the child's best interest,” and (2) the meanings and prejudices related to late adoption that increase the number of children who remain for many years in institutions.     

“That was Then,but This is Now”: Historical Perspectives on Intercountry Adoption and Domestic Child Adoption in Australian Public Policy

This paper brings historical perspectives to bear on the ambivalent and contradictory position of adoption in Australian public policy. It examines the divergent histories of Australian domestic and intercountry adoption (ICA) since the mid‐1970s and the impact of these histories on adoption policy in Australia. It identifies tendencies in contemporary ICA to repeat elements of pre‐reform era domestic adoption. In particular, it is argued that the resistance of ICA to the move to openness in local adoption has been an unacknowledged driver of ICA for many Australian families. We offer corrective readings of the rise of ICA in relation to domestic adoption and conclude by offering alternatives for adoption policy which better align the two kinds of adoption, focusing on the needs of children, as distinct from the desires of adults.     

Ethical Considerations in Adoption Research: Navigating Confidentiality and Privacy Across the Adoption Kinship Network

Abstract

Adoption research often includes multiple members of the adoption network, each of whom has distinctive perspectives. Participants may include adopted individuals and their siblings as well as adoptive parents, birth parents, and adoption professionals. Due to these multiple informants and the sensitivity of the topics explored in adoption research, researchers encounter several unique ethical concerns when working with populations impacted by adoption. The current article addresses confidentiality and privacy issues that arise when conducting adoption research. Examples from a longitudinal study on openness in adoption are provided to highlight strategies that can be used to address these issues.     

From Adoption to Residential Treatment Centers

Although children who have been adopted are referred for mental health services more often than their non-adopted peers and might be overrepresented within residential treatment centers (RTCs), little is known about adoptive families' experiences with RTCs. The present study sought to understand the experiences of families whose children were placed in residential treatment facilities after a finalized adoption. Qualitative interviews were conducted with a total of ten families who had adopted 21 children. Of these, 13 children had been placed in an RTC after the finalized adoption. Most of the children in the sample were between zero and five years of age at placement. Adoptive families reported the need for in-the-trenches training and community-based services that could provide ongoing support post-adoption. Implications from these findings include increasing in-home services and other options within the adoptive families' own communities. Future research could incorporate a larger sample to assess whether the experiences of families in this study are similar to other adoptive families.     

The Ethnic Identification of Same-Race Children in Intercountry Adoption

Intercountry adoption is a worldwide phenomenon that has been drawing an ever-increasing amount of research attention. The vast majority of that research has focused on transracial adoptive relationships and, in particular, the ethnic socialization and adjustment of children adopted into racially different families. Very little is known about the ethnic identity development of internationally adopted children who are racially similar to their adoptive parents. In the current study, 50 children adopted into New Zealand from Eastern Europe were interviewed on their ethnic self-identification and self-concept. The adoptees scored in the midrange on an ethnic identity scale and in the high range on a self-concept scale. However, no correlation was found between the two indices, suggesting that ethnic self-identification and self-concept operate independent of each other. These results, plus additional data collected during the interviews, are discussed in light of the New Zealand context and as they relate to the transracial adoption literature.     

Setting Performance Goals for Adoption Services

ABSTRACT

Adoption is one of the several goals for child welfare services when children cannot remain at home. Adoption does not, however, become a goal of child welfare services unless family reunification cannot occur. Further, adoption is also not always the appropriate goal when children are living with relatives available to reunify. Yet, President Clinton's Adoption 2002 initiative offers incentives for adoptions that only depend on the number of adoptions, not on their relationship to reunifications. California's adoption initiative takes a different but also oversimplified approach to setting adoption standards by basing them on the number of adoptions per adoption worker. Under these approaches, agencies that increase their reunifications and keep their adoptions constant are not rewarded and agencies that decrease their reunifications and increase their adoptions are rewarded. This can create a misunderstanding of the program as antifamily and resentment toward adoptions. Agencies' adoption rates should be rewarded only after estimating the pool of adoptable children and taking the likelihood of reunification into account. A model for estimating these factors is presented.     

The Importance of Adoption for Nurturing and Enhancing the Emotional and Intellectual Potential of Children

ABSTRACT

The present review examines whether the weight of the evidence indicates that adoption is, indeed, a benefit to the child. Several comparison groups have been used. In a number of studies, in United Kingdom, U.S.A. and India amongst others, a comparison has been made of the outcome of the child in his/her adoptive family to what it would have been had that child remained in her/his biological family, or in an institutional setting. Analyzing all the results, adopted children seem to function better than institutional children or children restored to their biological family.