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.     

Strengthening adoption practice, listening to adoptive families

In-depth interviews with 500 adoptive families who received postadoption services through Virginia's Adoptive Family Preservation (AFP) program paint a richly detailed picture of the challenges adoptive families face and what they need to sustain adoption for many years after finalization. Findings document the need for support in a variety of forms, including respite, counseling, and information. Numerous implications for strengthening adoption practice through effective training and technical assistance are discussed.     

The Postadoption Needs of Adoptive Parents of Children With Disabilities

Adoptions of children with disabilities are considered special needs, due to the higher level of support needed pre- and postadoption by families and children for adoptions to succeed. Despite this fact, very few studies examine the specific postadoption experiences of families with children with disabilities. Using secondary analysis of a national survey of adoptive parents, as well as interviews and a focus group with adoptive parents in one state, this study examines families’ with adopted children with disabilities challenges and unmet needs after adoption, as well as the postadoption needs and experiences of adoptive families with children with developmental and intellectual disabilities and adoptive families of children with emotional, behavioral, and mental health disabilities. Findings indicate that families with children with disabilities do report higher rates of challenges and barriers to service access, and that this is particularly true in families with adopted children with emotional, behavioral, and mental health disabilities. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Twenty american families' stories of adaptation: adoption of children from Russian and Romanian institutions

The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand how 20 families have adapted after adopting children between the ages of 3 and 5 years from eastern European institutions. The researcher visited a Romanian orphanage and then interviewed 20 families about their experiences with the adoption process and with family adaptation postadoption. Several themes emerged from the parents' stories regarding their search for support and resources to aid in parenting their children. Family therapists who are interested in working with families who adopt internationally from institutional settings can learn from the stories of parents.     

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.     

Adopting children with attachment problems.

This article describes children with significant attachment problems and summarizes the actions needed to increase the probability that such children can be successfully adopted. Healthy and disordered attachment patterns are detailed, as well as the principles and strategies that are important in parenting such children and the parenting characteristics that should be sought in selecting families for children with attachment disorder. Psychological treatment and other postadoption services necessary to support the adoption and the child's ability to successfully form a secure attachment with the adoptive parents are also highlighted.     

After adoption: dissolution or permanence?

Results are presented on the whereabouts of 516 adopted children, based on a random sample of children adopted from placement in New York City in 1996. Data from interviews with adoptive parents were augmented by information from adoption subsidy records and state child tracking files, as well as interviews with caregivers of children whose adoptive parents were deceased. There were few dissolutions, but postadoption service needs were many.     

Letting Her Go: Western Adoptive Families’ Search and Reunion With Chinese Birth Parents

This is the first study to investigate the trend of adopted individuals from China who search for and reunite with their birth parents. The authors suggest that the closed nature of China's international adoption program and growing ethical concerns about children's true origins impact the desire to search. Due to the generally younger ages of Chinese adoptees, adoptive parents have taken an unprecedentedly proactive role in this process. This article relies on in-depth interviews with adopted children and adoptive parents from seven Western families who reunited with Chinese birth parents. Interviews focused on the decision to search and methods used; the initial reunion; the development of bonds between adoptive and birth families; and post-reunion views of searching.     

The postadoption experience: child, parent, and family predictors of family adjustment to adoption

Eighteen to 24 months after they adopted children in state custody, 159 parents were surveyed regarding their postadoption experiences. Most children remained with their new families, with parents reporting the adoption experience to be "about as hard as expected," and rating the past year of caring for the child as being more "smooth" than "stressful." Parents saw how the child contributed positively to their lives, were less positive about available social supports, and expressed dissatisfaction with the speed of the adoption, the availability of community supports, and the ability to link with supports. Children's special needs (e.g., older age at adoption) were predictive of postplacement adjustment.     

The emerging role of adoption reunion registries: adoptee and birthparent views

Since the 1980s, government-sponsored adoption reunion registries have emerged as key access points for individuals separated by adoption to secure information and initiate efforts to be reunited with their birth-families. Despite the prevalence of such registries, little information is available about their operational effectiveness. This article presents data from a survey of adult adoptees and birthparents who used the services of a statewide reunion registry.     

Searching for the Self: Adult International Adoptees’ Narratives of Their Search for and Reunion With Their Birth Families

In this case study, five international adoptees from Finland were interviewed about their search and reunion experiences to find out what meanings they ascribed to their identities and family relations. The thematic analysis yielded three themes: search and reunion in significant periods of life, meaning of reunion for identity, and belonging and relatedness within family. The first theme was characterized by the changing interest in birth family from the inability in childhood to fully understand the meaning of adoption and the growing interest in adolescence to adulthood where participants’ own parenthood intensified their interest. The second theme was characterized by the sense of coherence and sense of continuity that the adoptees, despite the conflicting emotions of reunion, felt they had achieved through reunion. In the third theme, reunion with their birth family appeared significant, even though belonging to a family was interpreted more as an outcome of attachment and nurture than biology. Particular for all themes was the meaning of communicating about adoption-related issues for the adoptee–adoptive parent relationship. Future research is needed to concentrate in more detail on the broad themes and to investigate how the meanings of the birth family for adoptive identity change over life courses.     

Public Perceptions,Beliefs and Experiences of Fostering and Adoption: A National Qualitative Study in South Africa

In South Africa, rates of adoption remain low while the number of fostered children continually rises. Little is known about the public perceptions, beliefs and experiences that inform decisions to either foster or adopt in South Africa. This qualitative research explored these issues among a national sample of childless adults, biological parents, kin and non‐kin fostering parents and prospective and successful adopters. Fostering is driven predominantly by access to subsidies but is also informed by socio‐cultural beliefs. Low adoption rates are influenced by an absence of subsidies, poor access to quality adoptive services and a lack of information about adoption.     

Supporting Post-Adoption Contact for Children Adopted From Care: A Study of Social Workers' Attitudes

New legislation in England and Wales requires adoption agencies to specify the contact adopted children will have with their birth families and obliges agencies to offer all parties support to maintain such contact. This study, based on responses from 112 adoption social workers in England and Wales, used a case vignette methodology to explore workers' attitudes towards supporting post-adoption contact. The findings suggest that social workers think primarily about the child's needs and about providing services to or on behalf of the child. In contrast, adults' needs, especially the relationship between birth parents and adoptive parents, were less often considered. Workers were least orientated toward supporting birth parents. Workers from different agencies had very different attitudes towards the case vignette. This study suggests that supporting post-adoption contact is a complex professional task likely to be influenced by workers' own attitudes. Implications for training, support and supervision are discussed.     

An Assortative Adoption Marketplace: Foster Care,Domestic, and Transnational Adoptions

Among sociologists of the family, there has been relatively little attention paid to child adoption. When it is mentioned, many characterize the process as a universal family form. The goal of this review is to complicate this subject by disaggregating adoption into three different market segments: foster care, domestic, and transnational. Specifically, the paper argues that adoption is an assortative process that stratifies parents and children. Of the members of the adoption triad (e.g. the birthmother, adoptive parent(s), and adopted child), prospective adoptive parents possess the greatest degree of choice when deciding which market segment to pursue. However, their options are often tempered by strict eligibility requirements and financial restraints. Drawing broadly on the extant sociological and child welfare literature, the bulk of the review is devoted to identifying and analyzing how these social forces funnel parents and children into forever families. I pay particular attention to the demographic profiles of children and adoptive parents, including how transracial adoption factors into foster care, domestic, and intercountry adoptions.     

Externalizing Behavior Among Adopted Boys with Preadoptive Histories of Child Sexual Abuse

This study examined the severity of externalizing symptomology among adopted boys with preadoptive histories of child sexual abuse, physical abuse, neglect/abandonment, or no abuse. The study was based on data collected across a three-year period from parents who adopted children from Florida's child welfare system. The sample consisted of 1,136 adopted boys aged 6 to 18 years. In repeated cross-sectional multivariate analyses, the results revealed that adopted boys with preadoptive child sexual abuse were prone to significantly higher levels and clinically severe externalizing symptomotology as compared to adopted boys without such histories. The findings highlight the need for postadoption services and empirically validated interventions for families adopting boys with preadoptive child sexual abuse.     

Parent perspectives on adoption preparation: Findings from the Modern Adoptive Families project

Preparing prospective adoptive parents for receiving a child into their family is an important task for child and family professionals. This study uses data from the recent Modern Adoptive Families survey to understand parent perspectives on their preparation for adoption. Logistic regression (n = 917) and qualitative thematic analysis of adoptive parents' comments about their adoption preparation were conducted to understand aspects of the preparatory experience that were satisfactory (n = 623) or dissatisfactory (n = 283). Child emotional and behavioral problems significantly predicted parent dissatisfaction with adoption preparation. Major themes for satisfactory aspects of preadoption services included receiving information about adoption in general and, more specifically, about clinical and special populations, and parenting tools and strategies. In addition, parents identified opportunities to connect with others touched by adoption and access to specialized post-adoption services as helpful. Conversely, parents expressed dissatisfaction when information was lacking or withheld, when they had quality concerns with the worker or agency, and when there was a dearth of services and supports following adoption. Implications of these findings include the need for adoption mental health competent training for adoption professionals to better support families preparing for or experiencing adoption.     

Supporting Birth Parents in Adoption: A Couple Treatment Approach

Adoption yields benefits to most participants in the adoption triad; however, relinquishing a child is often a profound loss in birth parents’ lives. Although existing research suggests treatment considerations, there is a need for a comprehensive, systemic treatment approach to best support birth parents. This article proposes a couple treatment approach that incorporates suggestions from the birth parent literature with emotionally focused couple therapy, an empirically supported therapy model. The approach comprehensively addresses the needs of birth parents by punctuating couple strengths and resources, empowering couples, addressing the emotional experience of relinquishment, and acknowledging the contextual influences and consequences of relinquishment.     

Adoption Research: An Assessment of Empirical Contributions to the Advancement of Adoption Practice

This article examines the current state of adoption research as it applies to each member of the adoption triad. It includes a review of the research that has focused on birth mothers and fathers in both domestic and international adoptions; adopted children, adolescents, and adults; and adoptive parents. The paper also examines the areas of research in which a paucity of studies currently exist, and suggests that although major contributions to clinical practice and policy have been made, the dialogue should continue to seek to study issues such as international adoption and the adoption of children in foster care.     

More than just the Adoption of Western Capitalism? Time Use Changes in East Germany Following Reunification

Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, this paper examines changes in East German time use following the German Reunification of 1990, which led to large and unexpected economic and institutional changes, including the switch from a socialist to a capitalist system. By estimating Differences-in-Differences models, the study finds that East Germans reduced the time they spend on market work (96 min per weekday) and nonmarket work (51 min), while increasing the time allocated toward leisure and job search activities. The observed declines in market work time were largest for low-educated East Germans, those who were in the lowest income group, as well as for individuals between the ages 46 and 64. When comparing trends in time use for East and West Germany between 1990 and 2000, I provide evidence for a convergence in East German time use to its West German counterpart following the adoption of Western Capitalism and several other institutional and economic changes in East Germany. One possible explanation for this might be the adoption of West German time preferences following the reunion of the two regions.     

Challenging the Silence of the Mental Health Community on Adoption Issues

As traditional secrecy surrounding adoption has waned, the behavioral sciences, particularly the mental health community, have remained largely silent, particularly on postadoption issues. Reasons for this silence are suggested. Research on adoption is difficult to conduct. The mental health community may desire to see adoption as professional problem-solving and as a favor done to all involved. Problems in adoption thus represent both a failure on the part of those professionals and a favor gone bad. Fear that discussing adoption-related problems will lead to adoption itself being labeled as pathological is also likely operating to support the silence. Privacy issues for the adoptive and birth families are also important. Sexuality and childbirth have long been areas not sufficiently addressed, but with the addition of the illegitimacy common in adoption they are even more controversial. Issues of poverty, powerlessness, social class, and race also are difficult to face, as is the business aspect of adoption. Acknowledging the reasons for the silence may be the first step in addressing it. Other steps, such as continuing education programs and publication of information on postadoption issues are also suggested.