Resolving Race: How Adoptive Parents Discuss Choosing the Race of Their Child

This study analyzes narratives of 34 adoptive parents who spontaneously brought up race while recounting stories of infertility and adoption. Pals’ (2006) transformational processing scale is adapted to rate the degree to which participants express resolution regarding race. Resolution is defined as comfort with their racial choice, confidence in their ability to handle racial issues, and integrating their choice into sense of self. Race-based adoption choices are examined in the overall context of a white experience of race in the United States and as part of an ecological perspective on the adoptive family.     

Happily Ever After? The Journey From Foster Care to Adoption

Providing the foster child with a forever family through adoption is often seen as a happy ending to the long and painful journey through foster care. This qualitative study explores this complex journey from foster care to adoption from the perspective of 30 young adults aged 18 to 25 who were adopted from the foster care system after the age of 8. The results indicate that the foster and adoption experience for these youth cannot be compartmentalized when trying to understand the impact adoption has had on their overall sense of self. Implications for future research to explore the emerging concept of foster/adoptive identity for older youth adopted through the foster care system are provided.     

Contact Between Birth and Adoptive Families During the First Year Post-Placement: Perspectives of Lesbian,Gay, and Heterosexual Parents

Despite growing visibility of lesbian- and gay-parent adoption, only one qualitative study has examined birth family contact among adoptive families with lesbian and gay parents (Goldberg, Kinkler, Richardson, & Downing, 2011). We studied adoptive parents’ (34 lesbian, 32 gay, and 37 heterosexual; N = 103 families) perspectives of birth family contact across the first year post-placement. Using questionnaire and interview data, we found few differences in openness dynamics by parental sexual orientation. Most reported some birth mother contact, most had legally finalized their adoption, and few described plans to withhold information from children. We discuss implications for clinical practice, policy, and research.     

Adoption Preparedness,Cultural Engagement,and Parental Satisfaction in Intercountry Adoption

We explored factors that influence parental involvement in adoption dialogues in 66 internationally adoptive, heterosexual couples with 4- to 7-year old children. Correlates of adoption involvement varied by parent sex. Mothers were more involved in talking about adoption than fathers, but adoption involvement was also correlated within couples. Emphasis on the difference between biological versus adoptive parenting, quality of the marital relationship, and child characteristics were differentially associated with maternal and paternal involvement. Findings suggest an intricate interplay between the marital and co-parental dynamics that shape the early communication process within adoptive families.     

Changes in Motivation for Adoption,Value Orientations and Behavior in Three Generations of Adoptive Parents

ABSTRACT

It is hypothesized that in this century a pattern of three generations of adoptive parents has developed: the traditional-closed generation, the open-idealistic, and the materialistic-realistic generation. These three generations differ considerably in motives and attitudes concerning adoption. Changes in the adoption field are connected with important changes in society. Adoption has lost its taboo character, domestic adoption is decreasing or has almost vanished (Scandinavia, The Netherlands) and interracial adoption has started. Several figures illustrating changes in adoption patterns during the period 1960–1995 support the hypothesis.     

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.     

Ethnic Prejudice and Intergroup Contact in Prospective Adoptive Parents

While ethnic prejudice is considered a key factor in parental cultural socialization strategies, there is nonetheless a lack of research about this topic among prospective transracially adoptive parents and the extent of their contacts with members of minority ethnic groups. Participants in the current study were 175 couples: 102 prospective adoptive parents pursuing international adoption in Italy and 73 couples who at the time of the study neither had children nor were involved in the adoption process. Results showed, first, that prospective adoptive parents reported lower levels of ethnic prejudice and more positive intergroup contacts than the comparison group and, second, that adoptive status, together with a more positive intergroup contact, predicted lower levels of negative prejudice. Implications for pre- and post-adoption interventions are discussed.     

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.     

Exploring the Relationship Between Adoptive Parents and International Adoptees: From the Perspectives of Cross-Cultural Communication and Adaptation

Existing studies demonstrate that the identity formation of internationally adopted children and the adjustments of adoptive families reside in the processes of cross-cultural and intercultural communication. However, there have been few studies on international adoption from the perspectives of intercultural and cross-cultural communication. Following a previous qualitative study on the experiences of adult international adoptees, this project employs a quantitative method to examine the ongoing (before, during, and after adoption) cross-cultural adaptation and identity formation of international adoptees from the perspectives of adoptive parents. The findings of the study have identified the key issues involved in the cross-cultural adaptation process and discussed experiences of adoptive families for dealing with those 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.     

Contributions of Family Leisure to Family Functioning Among Transracial Adoptive Families

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to examine family leisure behavior among intact families with transracial adoptive children and make comparisons to a broad sample of families with only biological children. The sample consisted of 197 adoptive families. Data were analyzed from a parent, youth, and family perspective. The Family Leisure Activity Profile (FLAP) was used to determine family leisure involvement. FACES II was used to measure family functioning. Findings indicated that measures of family cohesion, family adaptability, and family functioning were higher among the adoptive family sample. Core, balance, and total family leisure involvement were also higher among the adoptive family sample. Multiple regression analyses indicated a positive relationship between family leisure and family functioning among this sample from the parent, youth, and family levels of measurement. Implications for practice and further research are discussed.     

The satisfaction of Finnish adoptive parents with statutory pre-adoption counselling in inter-country adoptions

We examined how satisfied Finnish adoptive parents were with statutory pre-adoption counselling in inter-country adoptions. The data were collected through the Finnish Adoption Study using a retrospective survey measuring satisfaction with received pre-adoption counselling. All adoptive parents with a child under the age of 18, adopted from abroad between the years 1990 and 2007, were included. The sample of the study comprised parents of 1451 children and a total response rate of 55.7% was achieved. The data consisted of self-scored reports of satisfaction as well as open answer questions. Parent satisfaction and associated variables were analysed using chi-square and multiple logistic regression. Of the respondents, 81.7% reported satisfaction with the pre-adoption counselling they had received. The level of satisfaction was stable over time and did not differ according to service provider, whereas family type and sending country were associated with satisfaction. However the explanations for satisfaction were different for those services provided in units specialized in adoption and for those provided by municipal child protection services. The components found to explain satisfaction and dissatisfaction were experience, adoption knowledge, and attitude of the social worker, service accessibility and availability issues, as well as the content of the pre-adoption counselling offered.     

Adoptive Family Adjustment and Its Relation to Perceived Family Environment

ABSTRACT

Fifty-one adopted college students from three mid-sized East Coast universities participated in interviews structured to gather information regarding adoptees' perceptions of adoptive family life. Additionally, subjects completed a scale which measured their perceptions of general characteristics of family environment. Multiple regression analysis revealed that of ten adoption-specific factors derived from interview data, overall satisfaction with one's adoptive status and family life was the strongest predictor of perceived general family environment. Adoptee satisfaction predicted high levels of family expressiveness, ethical focus and involvement in shared activities as well as low levels of family conflict. Adoptees' perception of adoptive fathers' and mothers' communication styles predicted different aspects of family environment. Adoptees' acknowledgment of life differences due to their adoptive status did not relate to family expressiveness. The latter finding lends support to recent research suggesting that acknowledgment and expressiveness are independent aspects of adoptive family functioning.     

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.     

The war at home: affective economics and transnationally adoptive families in the United States

The question of how to best conduct post-placement interventions for transnationally adoptive families at risk of dissolution (legal annulment) is an emerging issue in the United States. The current popular trend for adoptive families to pursue biomedical post-placement interventions, despite a lack of proof that such interventions actually work to keep the adoptive family intact, suggests the need for a more phenomenological approach to understanding both adoptive parents’ and transnational adoptees’ post-placement experiences. This study examines the empirical experiences of adoptive families at risk of dissolution in the United States who attempt to define and navigate the path toward family stability after adopting. From the coding of this data set emerge some routes through and by which emotions circulate between adoptive parents and transnational adoptees through the family body and the family social. Particularly, it investigates one post-placement “affective economy” at work in which adoptive parents attempt, through the expression of particular forms of parental love, to align adoptees as subjects of the private, nuclear American family, while adoptees more often attempt to create space for more heterogeneous forms of family, ones that include birth parents and other kin-like relations in their countries of origin. Ultimately, it illuminates some vastly different and sometimes contradictory ways that adoptive parents and adoptees can interpret family through emotional lenses, ones that can prevent a smooth post-placement transition for adoption actors. An understanding of these differences and how they shape, and are shaped by, the post-placement affective economy within families at risk of dissolution may aid in locating indicators for adoption dissolution, and possibly, designing more effective post-placement interventions for families struggling in the aftermath of adoption. It may also help scholars begin to think about the construction and impact of affective economies in the realm of adoption more generally.     

Openness in Korean Adoptions: From Family Line to Family Life

Since about 2000, a limited number of adoption organizations and parent groups in the Republic of Korea have been exploring how to increase communicative openness between adoptive parents and their children and between adoptive families and their neighbors. At least one agency has also developed structures to facilitate contact between the adoptive family and birth mother. The effort to increase openness is tied to a philosophy that challenges widespread assumptions in Korean society by centering its aims on family life rather than the continuity of the family line. The growth of openness has not been accompanied by a rise in domestic adoption numbers, but it has contributed to broader efforts to liberalize family relationships in Korea.     

The role of birth/previously adopted children in families choosing to adopt children with special needs.

Engaging birth/previously adopted children during the adoption process is crucial to laying the ground-work for successful placements. When families choose to adopt children with special needs, however, the role their other children will play in the adoption's success is often overlooked. This article presents a practical model that recognizes the dynamics of strength and vulnerability in adoptive families, then applies this model in preparing and supporting the family through the changes that are inevitable in special needs adoption. The model can also be used to assist adoptive parents in identifying and developing the skills they need to manage these shifts within the family.     

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.     

Adoption and Family Therapy

The aim of this article is to sensitise family therapists to adoption. A major assertion of the paper is that adoptive families are different from biological families. The family therapy context is a natural framework for examining these issues, as adoption affects and alters both birth and adoptive families, and adoption‐related problems occur within the context of the extended family system. The differences between intra‐racial (socially‐motivated) and inter‐racial adoptions are discussed, as well as the differences between closed and open adoptions. The study of families affected by adoption provides a model for other family forms, such as stepfamilies, foster families and families who form through new birth technologies.