A longitudinal study was conducted to determine factors predicting successful adoptions before placement and to identify differences and similarities between adoptive and biological families. Data collected on both adopted children and on their adoptive families before placement was related to data collected on the same children and families 6…

A study identified adoption, family, and biographical variables that differentiated between adoptees who told or did not tell their adoptive parents about their search for their biological parents. Findings lend support to the importance of adoptive family discussion and suggest that the feelings about adoption of adoptive mothers and adoptive…

Adoptive (n=72) and biological (n=72) parents' responses on items related to their own well-being, attitudes toward family life, parenting behaviors and values, and perceptions of their child's behaviors were compared. No differences were found. Findings challenge pathological assumptions about adoptive families, suggesting that deficiency models…

Noting social and demographic changes provoking a trend toward openness in adoption practice, this book presents the findings from a nationwide study examining the impact of variations in openness in adoption on participants in the adoptive kinship network: adopted children, adoptive parents, and the children's birth parents. The first chapter of…

Compared the transitions to adoptive and biological parenthood. Adoptive parents had more positive expectations and satisfying experiences than biological parents. Expectations and depressive mood predicted parental experiences for both groups; ego strength for biological parents; and feelings of deprivation, social support, and self-concept for…

Compared adjustment in adoptive and biological parents rearing 1- to 12-year-olds with Down syndrome. Found that birth mothers and fathers were functioning quite similarly to adoptive mothers and fathers on family strengths, marital adjustment, and resources and stress. Birth mothers displayed higher personal burden than adoptive mothers, with the…

This book aims to provide a broad framework within which to think about adoption as a whole system, so that everyone involved will learn to feel some empathy for the other members of the adoption process. The book, written by a family and adoption therapist who was adopted as an infant, describes predictable developmental stages and challenges for…

This study investigated: (1) effects of teaching mothers the unique behavioral cues of their adopted infants and (2) potential differences between the mothering practices of adoptive and birth mothers. A pretest, posttest experimental prospective design was used with random assignment of mother-infant dyads. Mother-adopted infant dyads were…