Communicative Openness About Adoption and Interest in Contact in a Sample of Domestic and Intercountry Adolescent Adoptees

Adolescent intercountry (n = 122) and domestic (n = 40) adoptees and their adoptive parents were asked about their views on communicative openness. The adoptees were also asked for their thoughts on birth parents and contact. A modest association between communicative openness and feelings about adoptive status and self-esteem was found. Girls were more interested in many aspects of their adoptions than boys. Compared with the situation at 11 years of age, there was greater parent-child agreement on whether the child had difficulties talking about adoption. Nevertheless, at age 15, children were still nearly twice as likely to report difficulties talking about adoption issues than their adoptive parents realized. At the age of 15, the majority of the adoptees expressed a desire for contact with birth relatives, but this was a reduction from the numbers at age 11. They also reported finding it easier to talk about adoption issues than they did at the age of 11. The implications for policy and practice are discussed.     

Mothers Raising Daughters: New Complexities in Cultural Socialization for Children Adopted From China

This study examined the process of cultural socialization among 6- to 8-year-old girls adopted from China, with a focus on adoptive mothers’ decisions about their children's socialization and children's interest in and knowledge about China and being Chinese. Qualitative interviews of 10 mothers and their children were analyzed using a grounded theory approach. Three main categories were identified to further specify parental cultural socialization: (1) motivation, (2) approaches to differences, and (3) type of activities that differed in their contextual layers and their degree of structure. Findings additionally revealed the interplay between parents’ cultural socialization practices and children's interest in socialization, patterns of participation, and knowledge and understanding about China or being Chinese. Results suggest that parental cultural socialization in families with children adopted internationally and transracially is more dynamic, complex, and layered than previously thought.     

Using Archival Datasets to Study Adoption-Related Questions

ABSTRACT

The Research Digest column describes the contents, availability and methods of accessing large datasets suitable for adoption research. With data collected by or funded by a variety of federal government agencies, the accessibility of these archival datasets enables researchers to pursue some of their investigative interests without all the problems related to data collection. Most of the data are relatively new, having become available to the public only in the 1980s. Secondary analysis of adoption-related material in these datasets could yield valuable insights into important adoption research questions.     

Who Is Adopted?

ABSTRACT

There are several advantages of using large representative samples to study adoption-related issues, and existing databases are increasingly used for this purpose. Large scale surveys are often limited, however, in the number and type of questions that are asked regarding adoption. Conceptual and methodological issues in measuring adoption status are discussed, and a rich new database-the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health (Add Health)-is used to illustrate these complexities. In Add Health school survey data, adolescents were asked a direct question about whether or not they were adopted and whether they lived with biological parents. During home interviews, adolescents were not asked about adoption status per se, but they could be classified as adopted if they lived with adoptive rather than biological parents. Parents' and adolescents' reports of adoption status and living arrangements are compared in Add Health data to illustrate the complexities of measuring adoption status when using archival data. For research to be scientifically credible and to enhance the accumulation of knowledge, investigators need to be precise about the concepts and measures they use in studying adoption-related issues, particularly when using previously collected survey data.     

智能健康硬件用户间歇性中止行为影响因素研究

 随着全民健康意识的提高，人们开始使用智能健康硬件进行个人健康管理，智能健康硬件的采纳和使用行为也逐渐受到学术界和业界的广泛关注。然而，当前智能健康硬件采纳和使用行为的研究主要集中于用户在静态时点上的持续使用或中止行为，忽略了用户在中止使用智能健康硬件后重新使用的现象，即间歇性中止行为。        基于矛盾态度和情绪波动的视角，构建智能健康硬件用户间歇性中止模型，并检验态度不稳定性在矛盾态度与间歇性中止之间、情绪唤起波动在情绪效价波动与间歇性中止之间的中介作用，进一步检验模型各路径的性别差异。通过问卷调查的方法，收集428份智能健康硬件用户数据，进行结构方程模型分析。        研究结果表明，用户对智能健康硬件的矛盾态度将带来态度不稳定性，并进而影响用户的间歇性中止行为，态度不稳定性也部分中介矛盾态度对间歇性中止行为的作用；用户对健康硬件的情绪效价波动正向作用于情绪唤起波动，进而促进用户的间歇性中止行为，情绪唤起波动完全中介情绪效价波动对间歇性中止行为的影响；对于间歇性中止行为的性别差异检验发现，男性样本中各路径的作用均显著强于女性样本。        研究结果阐述了矛盾态度和情绪波动对智能健康硬件用户间歇性中止行为的深层次作用机制，具有重要的理论和实践意义。①将当前技术中止的概念拓展到用户间歇性中止，并厘清了间歇性中止的关键研究问题、概念内涵、变量维度及其与技术完全中止的区别，进一步丰富了技术采纳后行为的研究框架。②基于态度和情绪的理论框架，从矛盾态度和情绪波动的视角探讨智能健康硬件用户间歇性中止行为的影响因素。由于消极态度和负面情绪仅可以解释技术中止行为，无法准确解释间歇性中止，因此矛盾态度和情绪波动的引入，一方面为解释间歇性中止提供了新的视角，另一方面也丰富了当前信息系统领域个人情绪和态度的理论研究。③性别差异的检验有助于加深当前对于不同性别用户采纳和使用智能健康硬件的理解和认识。此外，研究结果有利于智能健康硬件服务商准确理解并把握用户购买后行为，为电子健康行业的发展提供实践和理论指导。     

Mixed ethnicity, identity and adoption: research, policy and practice

Mixed ethnicity children are over-represented in the care system and constitute a significant group of those seeking adoption placements. Social workers are presented with a specific set of concerns in seeking to find adoption placements for mixed ethnicity children as they come from two or more cultural backgrounds. Practitioners face uncertain principles concerning how to respond to these issues, especially in light of social and political pressures, and within the realm of existing debates around 'transracial' adoption. There is a danger that among these uncertainties the individuality of the child will be lost as his or her identity needs become viewed narrowly. Social workers may seek to simplify and classify the identities of mixed ethnicity children in the adoption process through pressures that they feel to find 'matched' placements. This paper explores how theories concerning identity can provide some insight into the difficulties practitioners face and may help to inform social work practice in this area.     

Depressive Symptoms in Mothers of Recently Adopted Post-Institutionalized Children

To determine whether depressive symptoms are elevated within months of adoption, we compared women who had recently adopted a toddler from an overseas orphanage to women with children of the same age who adopted more than a year before or were raising a child they birthed. The groups did not differ significantly in means or in percentage with elevated symptoms (Session 1, χ²(2) = 2.5, ns; Session 2, χ²(2) = 1.38, ns). The results provided no evidence of elevated symptoms in the first months following adoption for women who adopted internationally relative to other women with toddler-aged children.     

普通高校学报用稿问题浅析

普通高校学报在用稿方面普遍存在审稿人把关不严、高质量的稿件外流、被动组稿、人情稿现象较突出、行政干预较突出等问题.要解决这些问题应采取相应措施.如编辑部把好第一关;加强编委的初审工作;开放稿源;实行优稿优酬;强化学报编辑的责权利.     

Research Review: In a rush to permanency: preventing adoption disruption

Since the late 1990s, US, UK and Canadian policy have increasingly focused on improving permanency outcomes for looked‐after children. Although the ideal permanency outcome of reunification is attained for about half of the children entering out‐of‐home care, an increasing number of children are adopted each year. The vast majority of adoptions are stable and secure, but concerns about adoption disruption haunt child welfare workers when making this important permanency decision. Despite a variety of definitions employed in the literature, adoption disruption is a general term used to describe the failure or breakdown of an adoptive child’s placement. Studies dating back to the 1970s have reported adoption disruption rates and the characteristics associated with those involved in such cases. This paper reviews available research, principally from the United States, and offers possible explanations for the wide range of reported disruption rates in the literature. After reviewing the research, practice implications for improving adoption outcomes and suggestions for future research are presented.