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Adoptive Families (adoptive + family)
Selected AbstractsParental alcohol dependence and the transmission of adolescent behavioral disinhibition: a study of adoptive and non-adoptive familiesADDICTION, Issue 4 2009Serena M. King ABSTRACT Aim To examine the genetic and environmental influences of parental alcoholism on offspring disinhibited behavior. Design We compared the effect of parental alcoholism history on offspring in adoptive and non-adoptive families. In families with a history of parental alcohol dependence, we examined the effect of exposure to parental alcoholism symptoms during the life-time of the adolescent. Setting Assessments occurred at the University of Minnesota from 1998 to 2004. Participants Adolescents adopted in infancy were ascertained systematically from records of three private Minnesota adoption agencies; non-adopted adolescents were ascertained from Minnesota birth records. Adolescents and their rearing parents participated in in-person assessments. Measurements For adolescents, measures included self- reports of delinquency, deviant peers, substance use, antisocial attitudes and personality. For parents, we conducted DSM-IV clinical assessments of alcohol abuse and dependence. Findings A history of parental alcohol dependence was associated with higher levels of disinhibition only when adolescents were related biologically to their rearing parents. Within families with a history of parental alcoholism, exposure to parental alcohol misuse during the life-time of the adolescent was associated with increased odds of using alcohol in adopted adolescents only. Conclusions These findings suggest that the association between a history of parental alcohol dependence and adolescent offspring behavioral disinhibition is attributable largely to genetic rather than environmental transmission. We also obtained some evidence for parental alcohol misuse as a shared environmental risk factor in adoptive families. [source] Adoption, Family Ideology, and Social Stigma: Bias in Community Attitudes, Adoption Research, and PracticeFAMILY RELATIONS, Issue 4 2000Katarina Wegar This article explores the impact of the dominant North American genetic family ideal on community attitudes toward adoption, on adoption research, and on the beliefs and attitudes of adoption case workers. It examines how the failure to recognize the stigmatized social position of adoptive families has shaped not only current public opinion about adoption, but adoption research and practice as well. In conclusion, the article offers suggestions for erasing negative bias from adoption research and practice. [source] Competence of Children Adopted from the Former Soviet UnionFAMILY RELATIONS, Issue 4 2000Teena McGuinness The former USSR led the way with the most children adopted from overseas into the United States from 1997-1999. This study (a) characterizes overall functioning of adoptees and (b) utilizes hierarchical regression analysis to evaluate both risks and protective influences of adoptive families and their relationships to child competence. Competence levels ranged from challenged to developmentally normal. Family cohesion and expressiveness were significantly associated with higher levels of child competence. [source] Environmental influences on reading-related outcomes: an adoption studyINFANT AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 2 2007Stephen A. Petrill Abstract Evidence from intervention studies, quantitative genetic and molecular genetic studies suggests that genetic, and to a lesser extent, shared environmental influences are important to the development of reading and related cognitive skills. The Northeast-Northwest Collaborative Adoption Projects (N2CAP) is a sample of 241 adoptive families, containing 354 children and their adoptive parents. Negative parent outcome × child age interactions significantly predicted child outcomes, suggesting that shared environmental influences related to parent,offspring resemblance, although modest, are most salient in younger children. Additional analyses suggested that identified measures of the family environment largely accounted for these parent,offspring correlations. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Infant temperament, pleasure in parenting, and marital happiness in adoptive families,INFANT MENTAL HEALTH JOURNAL, Issue 5 2001Leslie D. Leve Temperamental characteristics have been related to later externalizing and internalizing behavioral outcomes. To assess the relationship between temperament and the early family environment, we measured infant temperament, pleasure in parenting, and marital happiness via parent report in 99 families with a nonrelative adoptive infant. Perceptions of child temperament were assessed using two subscales of the Infant Behavior Questionnaire (IBQ; Rothbart, 1981). Mothers and fathers who rated their adoptive child as showing more Distress to Limitations (on the IBQ) reported less pleasure in routine parenting activities; this effect was mediated by marital happiness for fathers. Mothers reported less pleasure in parenting with infants perceived to be more temperamentally fearful (on the IBQ). The bidirectional relationship between temperamental characteristics and pleasure in parenting is discussed. © 2001 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health. [source] Beyond Preadoptive Risk: The Impact of Adoptive Family Environment on Adopted Youth's Psychosocial AdjustmentAMERICAN JOURNAL OF ORTHOPSYCHIATRY, Issue 3 2010Juye Ji Adopted children often are exposed to preadoptive stressors,such as prenatal substance exposure, child maltreatment, and out-of-home placements,that increase their risks for psychosocial maladjustment. Psychosocial adjustment of adopted children emerges as the product of pre- and postadoptive factors. This study builds on previous research, which fails to simultaneously assess the influences of pre- and postadoptive factors, by examining the impact of adoptive family sense of coherence on adoptee's psychosocial adjustment beyond the effects of preadoptive risks. Using a sample of adoptive families (n = 385) taking part in the California Long Range Adoption Study, structural equation modeling analyses were performed. Results indicate a significant impact of family sense of coherence on adoptees' psychosocial adjustment and a considerably less significant role of preadoptive risks. The findings suggest the importance of assessing adoptive family's ability to respond to stress and of helping families to build and maintain their capacity to cope with stress despite the sometimes fractious pressures of adoption. [source] Children adopted from China: a prospective study of their growth and developmentTHE JOURNAL OF CHILD PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY AND ALLIED DISCIPLINES, Issue 4 2008Nancy J. Cohen Background:, China has become a lead country for international adoption because of the relatively young age of the children and reported positive conditions of the orphanages. This study examined the process and outcome of growth and development of children adopted from China over their first two years with their adoptive families. Method:, Seventy infant girls adopted from China at 8 to 21 months of age (Mean age = 13 months) were examined on arrival in Canada and 6, 12, and 24 months later. Comparisons were made with non-adopted Canadian girls of similar age and from a similar family background as adoptive parents on indices of growth and standardized measures of mental, psychomotor, and language development. Results:, At arrival, children adopted from China were smaller physically and exhibited developmental delays compared to current peers. Children adopted from China were functioning in the average range on physical and developmental measures within the first 6 months following adoption. However, they were not performing as well as current peers until the end of their second year after adoption. Even then, there was developmental variation in relation to comparison children and continuation of relatively smaller size with respect to height, weight, and head circumference. Physical measurement was related to outcomes at various points on all developmental measures. Conclusions:, Deprivation in experience in the first year of life has more long-lasting effects on physical growth than on mental development. The variable most consistently related to development was height-to-age ratio. As a measure of nutritional status, the findings reinforce the critical importance of early nutrition. [source] Predictors of outcome for unrelated adoptive placements made during middle childhoodCHILD & FAMILY SOCIAL WORK, Issue 4 2005Cherilyn Dance ABSTRACT This paper reports on a follow-up to adolescence of two longitudinal prospective studies of children placed from public care with non-related adoptive families in the UK. Factors associated with outcome are presented for 99 children (one index child per adoptive family) who were between 5 and 11 years of age at placement. Information concerning the children's backgrounds and care histories was obtained shortly after placement (T1), from social workers. Adopters were interviewed at T1 and again at the end of the first year (T2). A further follow-up was conducted an average of six years after placement (T3). Outcomes at T3 were classified as either disrupted, which was true for 23%, continuing and ,positive' (49%) or continuing but ,difficult' (28%). Bivariate analyses revealed a number of attributes, related to both the child and the adoptive parents, which were associated with differential outcomes. Logistic regression produced five predictors of placement disruption: age at placement, behavioural problems, preferential rejection, time in care and the child's degree of attachment to the new mother. Differences were found between ,positive' and ,difficult' outcomes in continuing placements as well as between continuing and disrupted placements. The analysis suggests that adoption should certainly be considered as an option for children over 5 years of age while recognizing the need for both preparation and post-placement support. Evidence of differential outcome in continuing placements provides support for efforts to reduce the number of placements and returns home that a child at risk experiences. [source] Do the Effects of Early Severe Deprivation on Cognition Persist Into Early Adolescence?CHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 3 2006Findings From the English, Romanian Adoptees Study Cognitive outcomes at age 11 of 131 Romanian adoptees from institutions were compared with 50 U.K. adopted children. Key findings were of both continuity and change: (1) marked adverse effects persisted at age 11 for many of the children who were over 6 months on arrival; (2) there was some catch-up between ages 6 and 11 for the bottom 15%; (3) there was a decrease of 15 points for those over 6 months on arrival, but no differentiation within the 6,42-month range; (4) there was marked heterogeneity of outcome but this was not associated with the educational background of the adoptive families. The findings draw attention to the psychological as well as physical risks of institutional deprivation. [source] The "Test-Tube" Generation: Parent,Child Relationships and the Psychological Well-Being of In Vitro Fertilization Children at AdolescenceCHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 2 2001Susan Golombok The introduction of in vitro fertilization (IVF) at the end of the 20th century constituted a fundamental change in the way in which families could be created, and by the start of the new millennium an increasing number of children have been (and are being) born as a result of this procedure. This article presents findings of a longitudinal study of the first cohort of children conceived by IVF to reach adolescence. Thirty-four IVF families, 49 adoptive families, and 38 families with a naturally conceived child were compared on standardized interview and questionnaire measures of parent,child relationships and children's psychological well-being. The few differences in parent,child relationships that were identified appeared to be associated with the experience of infertility rather than with IVF per se. The IVF children were found to be functioning well and did not differ from the adoptive or naturally conceived children on any of the assessments of social or emotional adjustment. [source] Making and Breaking Family Life: Adoption, the State, and Human RightsJOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIETY, Issue 1 2008Sonia Harris-Short This article explores the extent to which the state's duties and responsibilities in the context of adoption are framed and reinforced by a rights-based discourse. It argues that the human rights paradigm plays an invaluable role in the pre-adoption process by identifying and imposing ever more exacting obligations on the state - obligations which are currently not being fully met by the Adoption and Children Act 2002. The application of a rights-based discourse to the post-adoption context proves, however, to be considerably more problematic. Indeed, it is argued that rather than extend and strengthen the state's responsibilities towards the child and the adopted family, liberal rights-based doctrine tends towards a more traditional model of adoption in which a minimalist state and the privacy, autonomy, and self-sufficiency of the new adoptive family are further entrenched. It is thus concluded that a human rights analysis provides no secure basis for challenging the Adoption and Children Act's rather limited provisions on post-adoption support. [source] Predictors of outcome for unrelated adoptive placements made during middle childhoodCHILD & FAMILY SOCIAL WORK, Issue 4 2005Cherilyn Dance ABSTRACT This paper reports on a follow-up to adolescence of two longitudinal prospective studies of children placed from public care with non-related adoptive families in the UK. Factors associated with outcome are presented for 99 children (one index child per adoptive family) who were between 5 and 11 years of age at placement. Information concerning the children's backgrounds and care histories was obtained shortly after placement (T1), from social workers. Adopters were interviewed at T1 and again at the end of the first year (T2). A further follow-up was conducted an average of six years after placement (T3). Outcomes at T3 were classified as either disrupted, which was true for 23%, continuing and ,positive' (49%) or continuing but ,difficult' (28%). Bivariate analyses revealed a number of attributes, related to both the child and the adoptive parents, which were associated with differential outcomes. Logistic regression produced five predictors of placement disruption: age at placement, behavioural problems, preferential rejection, time in care and the child's degree of attachment to the new mother. Differences were found between ,positive' and ,difficult' outcomes in continuing placements as well as between continuing and disrupted placements. The analysis suggests that adoption should certainly be considered as an option for children over 5 years of age while recognizing the need for both preparation and post-placement support. Evidence of differential outcome in continuing placements provides support for efforts to reduce the number of placements and returns home that a child at risk experiences. [source] | ||||||||||||||||