Narrating Adoption: Resisting Adoption as “Second Best” in Online Stories of Domestic Adoption Told by Adoptive Parents

Framed in narrative theory and relational dialectics theory, one hundred online stories of domestic adoption told by adoptive parents were qualitatively analyzed, revealing four primary discourses of adoption that challenge the idea that adoption is a second-best way to parent. Narrative beginnings were dominated by a discourse of adoption as a valuable alternative to pregnancy. Narrative middles-and-ends featured two discourses of how the adoption process unfolds: adoption as a worthwhile struggle guided by destiny and adoption as a smooth and predictable process. Intertwined with these process-oriented constructions of adoption was a discourse of adoption as communal kinning, which emphasized a hybrid family form comprised of both biological and nonbiological ties.     

Revision of the Adoption Law

DECEMBER 29, 1991, saw thePresident of the People'sRepublic of China promulgatea new adoption law by Order 54, a lawwhich was introduced to the seventhNational People's Congress at thetwenty-third meeting of its StandingCommittee and which took effect fromApril 1, 1992. This was the first suchadoption law in China and, althoughadoption did occur prior to itsimplementation, it was not then boundby legal measures or guarantee.     

“Do You Know Your Real Parents?” and Other Adoption Microaggressions

Myths, fairy tales, films, books, and everyday communication contain images and stories of orphans and adoptees that convey societal discomfort and judgment about adoption (i.e., adoption stigma). In this article, I apply the microaggression model to adoption-related experiences using the literature and theory on adoption stigma. Definitions for adoption-related microaggressions (microassaults, microinvalidations, and microinsults) and a fourth type of microaggression called microfictions (i.e., shared and hidden narratives that contribute to and define the secrecy in adoption) are introduced. Thirteen themes for adoption microaggressions and examples for each are proposed.     

Troubling the ‘Happy Family’: US Liberalism and Narratives of Transnational Adoption and Immigration from China

This essay connects adoption and immigration from China by considering the relationship between the adoptee and the Chinese nanny hired to care for her. I examine news media alongside Wendy Lee’s 2008 novel, Happy Family, which portrays the adoptive family through the perspective of a Fujianese immigrant domestic worker. Transnational adoption from China emerged in the early 1990s as undocumented immigration from the Fujian province rose, representing a major shift in Chinese immigration. These practices have been apprehended divergently in mainstream discourses. This essay approaches the family as a site of neoliberal privatization that frames adoption in terms of inclusion into US national ideologies of race, gender, and class, while undocumented immigration from China has been framed through exclusion. I argue that the nanny destabilizes the construction of the family as a space of depoliticized inclusion through her labor, revealing the neoliberal inequalities that shape both adoption and immigration.     

In Their Own Words: Adopted Persons’ Experiences of Adoption Disclosure and Discussion in Their Families

This study explored adoption disclosure in a sample of 18 adult adoptees who were adopted as infants. A qualitative analysis of semistructured interviews with adoptees was used to learn about participants’ experiences of adoption disclosure. The majority always knew they were adopted, were able to talk openly with parents about adoption, and had positive feelings related to learning about their adoption. Those who were dissatisfied with their disclosures reported that their parents were uncomfortable with discussing adoption and withheld information. Based on the findings, suggestions are provided for parents and adoption professionals on ways to improve the management of the disclosure process.     

What Encourages Nonprofits' Adoption of Good Governance Policies?

This study examines how nonprofits' external environments and organizational characteristics explain their likelihood of having written policies for good governance. Findings from the 2010 data of the National Center for Charitable Statistics show that state requirements for registration and annual reporting are not related to a nonprofit's likelihood of adopting such written policies. The results instead indicate that organizations that engage in lobbying activities and operate in metropolitan areas are more likely to have good governance standards. Most of all, the analysis shows that organizational resources, both financial and human, explain differences in the adoption of these policies. These findings suggest that the nonprofit community should collectively invest in building the infrastructure that helps smaller organizations develop good governance policies and, hence, stay competitive.     

Factors Contributing to Parents’ Preparation For Special-Needs Adoption

Three hundred and sixty-eight parents shared their perceptions of special-needs adoption preparation. Utilizing both quantitative and qualitative data to determine and understand what factors contribute to preparation, this study found that 12 child, family, and agency variables were correlated with perceived preparation, and that parents perceived level of preparation was predicted by the childs ability to attach, by the parents relationship with the agency, by the duration of the adoption, and by the parents ages at the time of adoption. Implications of these findings are discussed, as they relate to supporting parents, children, and families in special-needs adoptive placements.     

“It Was Like This,I Think”: Constructing an Adoption Narrative for Chinese Adopted Children

Using qualitative survey data from 35 adoptive parents of children from China, I explore the type of narrative parents construct about their child's “abandonment.” Parents tell the story they know best—the child's adoption story—being careful to not overly burden the child with harsh abandonment realities. Most parents opt to tell a dominant narrative, portraying the child's Chinese birth parents as parents who loved their child and struggled with the decision to give up their child pressured by outside forces to do so. Any counternarrative told seems to be for the adoptive parents themselves, not for their children.     

The Adoption and Use of the Hirschman–Herfindahl Index in Nonprofit Research: Does Revenue Diversification Measurement Matter?

Since its introduction by Tuckman and Chang (Nonprofit Volunt Sector Q 20(4):445–460, 1991), the Hirschman–Herfindahl Index (HHI) has been widely adopted into the nonprofit literature as a precise measure of revenue concentration. This widespread adoption has been characterized by diverse composition, with the HHI’s calculation being largely determined by the nature of the available data and the degree to which it contained disaggregated measures of revenue. Using the NCCS 990 Digitized Data, we perform an acid test on whether different HHI measures yield significantly different results. Four measures of revenue concentration—an aggregated measure based on three revenue streams, an aggregated measure separating government grants from other contributions, a more nuanced measure based on seven revenue streams, and a fully disaggregated measure based on thirteen revenue streams—are used to predict two dominant nonprofit financial health dimensions: financial volatility and financial capacity. Overall, our results show that aggregation in HHI measurement matters; aggregation often downplays relationships by influencing the significance levels and magnitudes of estimates in a non-trivial way.     

Grandmother, Mother and Me

MY nationality, the Zhuang nationality, has the largest population among the minority nationalities in China, the population being 15.49 million. In my hometown the Zhuang people still keep their own culture and a strong sense of the nationality. Since 1949, great changes have taken place in the families of the Zhuang people, including the life of women. The different experiences of my grandmother, my mother and myself reveal the changes of this ethnic group. My grandmother was born at the beginning of the century, when the bourgeois democratic revolution led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the Revolution of 1911, was undertaken in China to overthrow the Qing Dynasty. This revolution didn't influence my grandmother's life much, for during her time the Zhuang people didn't have much contact with the Han     

Children''''s Good Fortune—After the Implementation of the Law of Adoption

On December 29 of 1991, the first law of adoption of China was passed at the 23rd session of the seventh National People's Congress, and was put into effect from April 1, 1992. (Please see our coverage on the revision of the law in 1998 in the third issue of last year.) With the guarantee of law in adoption, the number of     

Work–family conflict among Black,White, and Hispanic men and women

Are there racial/ethnic differences in work–family conflict? Using a nationally representative survey of Americans, we analyze differences in work–family conflict among Blacks, Whites, and Hispanics and then utilize an intersectional approach, disaggregating men and women within each racial/ethnic group. Using structural equation modeling, we find that the usual predictors of conflict – family and work characteristics – have varied effects on work–family conflict among men and women of different racial/ethnic groups. Nonstandard schedules were uniformly linked to increased work-to-family conflict among all respondents, regardless of subgroup. Our findings reveal the merits of intersectional approaches, and suggest the need for theoretical models of the work–family interface that better reflect the experiences of men and women of color.     

Family Structure,Mother–Daughter Relationship Quality,Race and Ethnicity,and Adolescent Girls' Health Risks

Using a sample of 7,114 adolescent girls (4,269 White, 1,707 African American, and 1,138 Hispanic) and biological mothers from Wave 1 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we examined how family structure, girls' perceptions of mother–daughter relationship quality, and race and ethnicity related to girls' health risks. In general, results indicate heightened risk for both precocious events and depressive symptoms for girls in mother–stepfather, single-mother, and nonresident mother families compared to mother–father families. However, significant two- and three-way interactions suggest that adolescent girls' health risks vary considerably based on the combination of family structure, mother–daughter relationship quality, and race and ethnicity.     

“A Family for Every Child”: Discursive Constructions of “Ideal” Adoptive Families in Online Foster Adoption Photolistings That Promote Adoption of Children From Foster Care

ABSTRACT

Despite documented cultural and institutional preferences for biological family ties, approximately 100,000 children await adoption in the U.S. foster care system. Child welfare professionals have the important task of finding these children permanent families, yet little is known about this process or how “ideal” adoptive families are constructed. Thus, this study critically examines photolistings (N = 104) from www.afamilyforeverychild.org. Findings indicate that discursive constructions of “forever family,” based on chosen family structure and familial performance, counter biology-based understandings of family. Practical applications that might open untapped opportunities to connect children with permanent families are discussed.     

Community,Family, and Individual Factors Associated with Adolescents’ Vulnerability,Daily Stress,and Well-being Following Family Separation

ABSTRACT

This study identified correlates of resilience among adolescents from separated families. Twenty-four adolescents (age 9–14 years) and their parents completed measures of sociodemographic risk and protective factors, interparental conflict, and adolescent responses to conflict. Adolescents reported their behavior, learning, mood, and anxiety difficulties as well as their stress and well-being using a 5-day diary. Resilient adolescents reported more constructive family representations, reported lower interparental conflict, and were from schools and neighborhoods that were more advantaged. Resilient adolescents reported significantly less stress across the diary days than vulnerable adolescents. The results of this study highlight the role of sociodemographic factors, family functioning, and adolescents’ own individual characteristics in their adjustment to their parents’ separation.     

Quakers,colonies and colonials, 1938–48

Scholars have barely scratched the surface of the history of ‘Black’ peoples in the United Kingdom before the brief episode of immigration which began in 1948. For example, very little is known about the response of ‘white’ organizations, whether religious, philanthropic or political, to colonial issues or to ‘colonials’ in Britain. This article looks at the attitudes, as revealed by central committee minutes, of the Society of Friends, a religious body with a strong anti‐slavery and public service tradition.     

“Outside and Inside, Male and Female” Reconsidered

This paper reconsiders Judith Kestenberg's classic work Outside and Inside, Male and Female in the light of subsequent work on gender identity and psycho-sexual development. Kestenberg argued that the fear of internal genital sensations was common to both men and women and an obstacle to sexual development. An understanding of the fears and phantasies men and women have about their bodies which they project onto each other is an important aspect of therapeutic work, which the author believes does not receive adequate attention. Through two case examples she shows where Kestenberg's theory is still valid and where it needs to be revised. While Kestenberg could assume a normative heterosexuality, the author suggests we must now reexamine our theories in the light of challenges presented by homosexuality, bisexuality and transexuality.