Becoming a Transracial Family: Communicatively Negotiating Divergent Identities in Families Formed Through Transracial Adoption

Guided by intergroup and discourse dependence theorizing, the present study explored how divergent identities are communicatively negotiated in transracial adoptive families. Specifically, we examined how adoptive parents’ understandings of their child’s race and culture changed after adopting transracially and how adoptive parents navigated racial and cultural differences through talk. Results from 21 interviews revealed that adoptive parents reported an increased awareness of race and culture, such that a new appreciation for their child’s race and culture developed yet simultaneously amplified ambivalence. Results further indicated parents utilized narrating, naming, ritualizing, discussing, normalizing, and praising to communicatively negotiate racial and cultural identity differences. Findings contribute to transracial adoptive family research by illuminating how parents make sense of differing social identities within the family. Results also advance discourse-dependence theorizing by demonstrating the context-specific nature of internal boundary management strategies and by giving voice to the prevalence of border work in transracial adoptive families.     

Parents Forever: Evaluation of an Online Divorce Education Program

Divorce education programs are conducting increasingly rigorous impact evaluations to assess if their curriculum improves parenting practices, reduces conflict in the coparenting relationship, and improves outcomes for children. This article presents a 6-month follow-up evaluation of the online version of Parents Forever, an 8-hour divorce education course developed by the University of Minnesota Extension. At follow-up, parents (N = 232) reported significant improvements on several questions about postdivorce parenting and well-being, indicating that the online version of Parents Forever is effective in promoting positive behavioral change for parents.     

Training for Transracial Adoptive Parents by Public and Private Adoption Agencies

ABSTRACT

Social work literature strongly suggests that parents who adopt across race need specialized training to develop cultural competence in order to help their children develop positive racial identity and survival skills for life in a multicultural society. None-the-less, there is little documentation of agency training for transracial adoptive parents. The purpose of this study is to describe aspects of training provided to transracial adoptive parents by public and private adoption agencies in the United States. Utilizing a survey with a random sample of public and private agencies, results (n = 195) indicate that about half of the agencies that facilitate transracial adoption provide relevant training. Implications for social work practice and research are discussed.     

Same-Sex Parent Socialization: Understanding Gay and Lesbian Parenting Practices as Cultural Socialization

ABSTRACT

Cultural socialization refers to the processes by which parents communicate cultural values, beliefs, customs, and behaviors to their children. To date, research on cultural socialization has focused primarily on racial- and ethnic-minority families, and more contemporary studies have examined these practices among international and transracial adoptive families. In general, four main themes have emerged in the literature: Cultural Socialization, Preparation for Bias, Promotion of Mistrust, and Egalitarianism. Since families with same-sex parents continue to experience stigma in society, there is reason to believe these parents engage in cultural socialization strategies specifically around issues of sexual orientation. Yet, current research on cultural socialization has not explicitly investigated same-sex parenting. Thus, the present study examined same-sex parent socialization among families headed by sexual-minority parents (52 fathers, 43 mothers) using a preexisting socialization framework. Findings revealed that the majority of parents endorsed behaviors designed to promote children's awareness of diverse family structures and prepare them for potential stigma-related barriers socialization along three dimensions: Cultural Socialization, Preparation for Bias, and Proactive Parenting. These results contribute to our empirical understanding of same-sex parenting and justify the need to broaden our conceptualization of cultural socialization to be more inclusive of these diverse family structures.     

Culturally Competent Substance Abuse Treatment for Asian/Pacific Islander Women

Summary

In response to the urgent need for substance abuse treatment among pregnant and postpartum Asian/Pacific Islander (A/PI) women, heath care and social service providers in a rural community of Hawaii established a culturally based, women-centered residential treatment program. The program was designed to address barriers that often prevent A/PI women from engaging and completing treatment. Treatment included Hawaiian healing practices or deep cultural therapy, provision for newborns to live with their mothers, infant health-care services, parent education, and infant-mother bonding guided by kupu-na (elders) of the community.

Analysis of twenty-one in-depth interviews revealed factors that A/ PI women participants found vital to their treatment process: having their children with them in a non-punitive, mutually respectful treatment milieu; working with consistent, competent residential staff and culturally-sensitive interdisciplinary professionals; and involvement in a range of substance abuse interventions, including cultural healing practices.

Findings underscore the importance of learning about and affirming women's lived-experiences and cultural contexts in the development of culturally competent practice models, interventions, research procedures, and policies that focus on the complex needs of chemically dependent pregnant and parenting women (Brindis & Theidon, 1997).     

Factors Related to Transracial Adoptive Parents’ Levels of Cultural Competence

The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to examine the relationship of parents’ level of cultural competence with several factors. Exploratory regression analysis was utilized with a sample of transracial adoptive (TRA) parents of children born in Korea and China (n = 912). Results indicated that 16.2% of variance in a measure of TRA parents’ cultural competence was explained by families’ participation in postadoption support groups; parent's sex, that is, female; traveling to the child's country of origin for adoption; postadoption contact with adoption professionals; absence of biological children in the family; and families’ annual income over $75,000. Conclusions and implications for practice and research are discussed.     

A Framework for Use with Racially and Culturally Integrated Families: The Cultural-Racial Identity Model as Applied to Transracial Adoption

A new model for understanding and depicting the unique identity experiences of those reared in racially and/or culturally integrated families is presented. The model accountsfor heterogeneity within groups defined by their racially integrated families. For the purpose of describing and presenting the model, it was applied to the unique experiences of transracial adoptees. The model allows distinctions to be made between racial identity and cultural identity. These distinctions comprise 16 proposed identities of transracial adoptees and are made up of the degrees to which they have knowledge of, awareness of, competence within, and comfort with their own racial group’s culture, their parents’ racial group’s culture, and multiple cultures as well as the degree to which they are comfortable with their racial group membership and with those belonging to their own racial group, their parents’ racial group, and multiple racial groups. A modelfor understanding the role of parents, extended families, and social and environmental contexts was also presented as a guide for demonstrating the factors impacting the culturalracial identities of transracial adoptees or others from racially and/or culturally integrated families.     

The effectiveness of a parenting education program based on respected parents & respected children for mothers of preschool-aged children

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Respected Parents & Respected Children (RPRC) parenting education program for mothers of preschool-aged children in South Korea. A total of 99 mothers were assigned to an intervention group (n = 54) or a control group (n = 45). Mothers in the intervention group received 16 weekly sessions of the parenting education program and then were compared with mothers who did not take part in the program. Questionnaires were used to assess parenting characteristics (i.e., maternal depression and anger, parenting behavior, co-parenting, parenting efficacy, and parenting stress) at baseline (pre-test), immediately after the termination of the program (post-test), and 8 months after the end of the program (follow-up test). Maternal rejection/restrictions, dissatisfaction, and parental distress of the intervention group decreased and efficacy as parents improved after taking part in the program, and these effects were sustained at follow-up. Our findings support the effectiveness of the RPRC parenting education program in changing parenting strategies and satisfaction and emphasize the need for preventive interventions for parents with young children.     

Training foster parents in loyalty conflict: A training evaluation

Fifty two foster parents participated in one of seven offerings of a two-and-a-half hour training on the issue of children caught in a loyalty conflict. Prior to the training foster parents completed a measure of their demographics, receptivity to learning about the issue, and their knowledge about the issue. Following the training the participants completed a measure of their perception that the training was helpful, their intent to change based on the training, and their knowledge about loyalty conflicts. They also participated in a focused discussion about loyalty conflicts. In this sample foster parents were found to have high levels of receptivity to training, high rates of perceived helpfulness of the training, and high levels of intent to change after the training as well as an increase in knowledge regarding loyalty conflict from before to after the training. Despite limitations in sampling strategy and sample size, the data support the belief that foster parents want to learn about this issue and can benefit from a single training on it.     

Spirituality for Building Resilience in Children of Divorced Parents: A Cross-Country Experimental Study

Based on a post-test experimental study of 1,893 children of divorced parents across 15 countries, I examine influence of a spiritual education program (SEP) on their resilience building. I have used 4 scales to study the resilience and strengths of the treatment group children. Results of the analysis of variance and t test showed that treatment group children scored better on the scales compared to the control group. Through 4 structural equation models, I show that the scores of the treatment group children were influenced by parenting arrangements, economic class, SEP, and self-practice. Children who lived with single parents or had nonresident cooperative coparenting arrangements scored higher on the scales vis-à-vis those who had custodial and frequently conflicting coparenting arrangements or those whose parents had repartnered and they had stepparents. Upper middle-class children responded better to SEP than their elite class counterparts. Further, treatment group children who did 2 or 3 rounds of the SEP during the course of the study vis-à-vis once, and those who said that they self-practiced the program lessons regularly scored higher on the scales. The findings highlight the importance of spiritually sensitive interventions for resilience building of children of divorced parents.     

‘Nobody wants the parents involved’: Social norms in parent and adolescent responses to cyberbullying

Parent involvement is considered essential to preventing cyberbullying, yet little is known about how parents respond to cyberbullying when it occurs. With this in mind, this study uses data from focus groups with parents (n?=?48) to examine their responses to hypothetical cyberbullying scenarios in which their child is presented as a victim, aggressor, or bystander. We investigate how parents’ responses conform to, deviate from, or complicate normative recommendations and advice from researchers and advocacy organizations. In addition, we conducted interviews with adolescents (n?=?17) to see how their responses to cyberbullying converge with or contradict parents’ reactions. Results suggest that while parents are concerned about online aggression and are familiar with parenting norms and expectations around cyberbullying, social context and relationships complicate their responses. Children, however, view cyberbullying as normal and believe that parents should not intervene. Our findings suggest a need for improved communication with parents around boundary conditions and preferred responses to cyberbullying as well as a need for continued conversation around rapidly evolving norms for parenting and digital technology.     

Socializing Children About Family Structure: Perspectives of Lesbian and Gay Adoptive Parents

Despite increasing numbers of lesbian- and gay- (LG-) parent families, little research on LG-adoptive-parent families has examined parental beliefs and perceptions related to discussing their sexual minority status with their children. This study assessed 266 LG adoptive parents (160 lesbian mothers, 106 gay fathers) from the Modern Adoptive Families (MAF) study, a nationwide survey (2012–2013) of adoptive parents' pre- and post-placement experiences. A cultural socialization lens provided the framework for examining LG parenting beliefs and practices. Two measurement scales were developed to examine parents' perceptions and self-efficacy related to socializing their child about being in a sexual-minority-parent family. Results indicate that LG parents endorse the importance of unique socialization practices and generally feel confident engaging in these practices. Parent education, transracial adoption, endorsement of racial socialization, and socialization self-efficacy were positively associated with endorsement of socialization practices. Excellent reliability suggests the 2 scales have the potential of being psychometrically sound instruments with which to measure parental endorsement and related self-efficacy of socialization practices for families headed by sexual minority parents. Findings contribute to a deeper understanding of socialization and communication patterns in LG-headed families, especially those formed through adoption. Research, policy, and practice implications are discussed.     

“It's really overwhelming”: Parent and service provider perspectives of parents aging out of foster care

Rates of pregnancy and parenthood among current and former foster youth are two to three times higher than non-foster youth peers. Repeat pregnancies among young mothers aging out of foster care also occur at higher rates than peers not involved with the child welfare system. Furthermore, mothers aging out of foster care demonstrate high levels of parenting stress and risk for child maltreatment. Indeed, this population is in significant need of help; however, beyond anecdotal evidence, little is known about the needs and day-to day experiences of this population. In order to tailor interventions to meet the needs of parents aging out, the perspectives of stakeholders must be taken into account. Using qualitative data gathered from separate small group interviews with parents aging out and service providers, this study examined participants' perceptions of parents' daily experiences, strengths, and needs. Findings indicated that parents aging out face overwhelming adversity and stress with little outside financial, emotional, or parenting support from family or friends. Yet, parents also expressed motivation to be good parents, resilience, and the desire to gain effective parenting skills. Although similar themes arose among parent and provider interviews, perceptions differed. Parents expressed hope and optimism in providing for their children while providers expressed systemic failure in preparing parents for independent living. Based on these findings, we conclude that parenting interventions specific to parents aging out may need to address three fundamental and key components: basic needs, social support, and effective parenting techniques.     

Universal Parenting Programme Provision in England; Barriers to Parent Engagement in the CANparent Trial, 2012–2014

The CANparent trial, 2012–2014, was a government initiative in four English areas designed to develop a market in universal parenting support. Fourteen parenting class providers offered classes to all parents of children aged 0–5 in the areas. In three areas, all eligible parents received £100 vouchers exchangeable for a parenting class. Pre‐trial planning was that take‐up would amount to 20 000 parents. However, only 14 per cent of these parents took advantage of the offer. This article utilises 42 interviews with providers, and two parent surveys over two time periods (n = 1510 and n = 1603) to review barriers to engagement with universal parenting support programmes.     

Parent training in foster families with children with behavior problems: Follow-up results from a randomized controlled trial

The present randomized controlled trial examined the four months follow-up effectiveness of Parent Management Training Oregon (PMTO) for parents with foster children (aged 4–12) with severe externalizing behavior problems in long-term foster care arrangements. The aim of PMTO, a relative long and intensive (6–9 months, with weekly sessions) parent management training is to reduce children's problem behavior through improvement of parenting practices. We specifically investigated whether PMTO is effective to reduce foster parenting stress. It was expected that PMTO would reduce parenting stress in foster parents, improve the quality of parenting practices, and reduce children's problem behavior. Multi-informant (foster mothers, foster fathers, and teachers) data were used from 86 families. Multilevel analyses based on the intention to treat principle (retention rate 73%) showed that PMTO, compared to care as usual, had no significant direct, nor indirect or sleeper effects at follow-up on parenting stress, parenting behavior and child behavior problems. Earlier reported immediate effects of PMTO on reduced parenting stress at posttest disappeared at follow-up. Additional analyses on the role of non-specific intervention factors in PMTO effects showed that higher therapist fidelity scores resulted in stronger effects of PMTO on parenting responsiveness, parental explaining and autonomy granting. Unexpectedly, higher fidelity scores also predicted less decrease of parenting stress at follow-up.     

Minding the (Information) Gap: What Do Emerging Adult Adoptees Want to Know About Their Birth Parents?

Abstract

The formation of an adoption information gap was examined for a group of 169 emerging adults (M?=?25.0?years) who were adopted as infants. Participants completed interviews and questionnaires at adolescence and emerging adulthood (late teens to 20s). The Adoption Curiosity Pathway model guided research questions about formation of an adoption information gap, which exists when there is a difference between what an adopted person knows and what he or she desires to know regarding his or her adoption. In addition, specific issues were identified about which emerging adults were curious. Differences in these specific issues were examined across gender and openness arrangement with birth parents at emerging adulthood. The most frequently sought information was medical and health history. Logistic regression analyses revealed that the formation of an adoption information gap, which contains the specific items of curiosity, was more likely for those who were less satisfied with the amount of openness with birth parents during both adolescence and emerging adulthood. Implications for practice are presented.     

In Search of the Sources of Psychologically Controlling Parenting: The Role of Parental Separation Anxiety and Parental Maladaptive Perfectionism

This study investigated the role of two dimensions of parental separation anxiety—Anxiety about Adolescent Distancing (AAD) and Comfort with Secure Base Role (CSBR)—and parental maladaptive perfectionism in the prediction of psychologically controlling parenting. In a sample of middle adolescents and their parents (N=677), it was found that parents' AAD scores and maladaptive perfectionism were positively related to psychological control, whereas parents' CSBR scores were negatively related to psychological control. Further, psychological control served as an intervening variable in the links between parent characteristics and adolescent well‐being. These findings suggest that two qualitatively different types of psychological control may exist: one originating from parents' separation anxiety and another originating from parents' maladaptive perfectionist standards.     

Political Correctness and the Banal Routines of Daily Life

In response to the need for increased understanding of the identity process of transracial adoptees, the Cultural-Racial Identity Model (A. L. Baden &; R. J. Steward, 1995) was developed; however, the model has yet to be empirically validated. The model allows distinctions to be made between racial identity and cultural identity, resulting in 16 proposed identities. Identities are based on the degrees to which individuals (1) have knowledge of, awareness of, competence within, and con1fort with their own racial group’s culture, their parents’ racial group’s culture, and multiple cultures, and (2) are comfortable with their racial group membership and with those belonging to their own racial group, theirparents’ racial group, and multiple racial groups. Four dimensions of the model were determinedfor study: the Adoptee Culture Dimension, the Parental Culture Dimension, the Adoptee Race Dimension, and the Parental Race Dimension. In this study, the Cultural-Racial Identity oftransracial adoptees was assessed by a modified version ofthe Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM; J. S. Phinney, 1992). Psychological adjustment was assessed by the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI; L. R. Derogatis &; P. A. Cleary, 1977). The sample consisted of 51 transracial adoptees who completed mail survey questionnaires. The exploratory findings supported the Cultural-Racial Identity Model by demonstrating that the modified version of the MEIM successfully yielded variation in the potential CulturalRacial Identities that the transracial adoptees reported. Findings also did not yield support for differences in psychological adjustment among transracial adoptees