Predictors of Parenting Stress During Early Adoptive Parenthood

A four-year multi-wave prospective study on the role of parental reflective functioning and parenting stress in the development of socio-emotional problems in internationally adopted children

Parental reflective functioning (PRF) plays a protective role in the development of children with histories of early adversity, including adopted children. This is the first study to investigate the developmental trajectories of PRF and children's socio-emotional problems in the first 4 years after international adoption (N = 48 families, mean age (T1) = 20.7 months) and to examine the mediating role of parenting stress in the relation between PRF and child socio-emotional problems. Multilevel modeling indicated that age at adoption and parent gender moderated the development of PRF and child socio-emotional problems. Moreover, decreases in PRF were associated with more socio-emotional problems in the children. These relations were mediated by parenting stress, and particularly feelings of incompetence and marital dissatisfaction.

COVID-19-Related Stress and Resilience Resources: A Comparison Between Adoptive and non-Adoptive Mothers

Despite an increasing interest in how adoptive parents deal with situations appraised as stressful, there is a lack of research regarding adoptive parents' adjustment to the challenges posed by the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. The current study explores similarities and differences between adoptive and non-adoptive mothers in terms of risks (i.e., COVID-19-related stress) and individual (i.e., sense of coherence [SOC]), couple (i.e., partner's support), parent-child (i.e., parent-child relationship satisfaction), and social (i.e., friends' support) resources in the face of the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, the present study was aimed at predicting which variables discriminate more effectively between the two groups. Participants were 445 Italian mothers (40.9% adoptive mothers), who were asked to fill in an anonymous online survey between May 2021 and October 2021. Results showed that adoptive and non-adoptive mothers reported different resilience resources to face the stressors posed by the health emergency. Specifically, COVID-19 traumatic stress symptoms, parent-child relationship satisfaction, and SOC were found to contribute most in discriminating between the two groups. Findings are discussed in relation to future research developments and practical implications.

Explaining Parenting Stress among Adoptive Parents: The Contribution of Mindfulness, Psychological Flexibility, and Self-Compassion

Although parenting stress has been identified as one of the most important and highly acceptable targets for postadoption psychological intervention, knowledge regarding the modifiable factors that contribute to explaining this outcome among adoptive parents remains scarce. This study aimed to explore whether and to what extent adoptive parents' mindfulness, psychological flexibility, and self-compassion contribute to explaining parenting stress and to analyze whether this contribution varies according to children's age, time passed since the adoptive placement, and the parents' gender. Cross-sectional data from 302 Portuguese adoptive parents with children between 1 and 17 years old were collected online through self-response questionnaires. Controlling for a wide range of child-, adoption-, and parent-related variables, lower levels of mindfulness, psychological flexibility, and self-compassion were associated with higher levels of parenting stress. These associations were not moderated by children's age, time passed since the adoptive placement, or the parents' gender. The final regression model explained 50% of the variance in parenting stress. These results allow us to reflect on new guidelines for both preventive and remedial interventions with adoptive parents, given the apparent added value of promoting these psychological resources.

Anonymous birth: Biographical knowledge and dyadic coping in adoptive mothers and fathers

Research on adoptive parents of anonymously born children is still scarce. Open issues are (1) examining how much biographical information is available to adoptive parents, (2) considering differences between adoptive mothers and fathers, and (3) understanding what affects their dyadic coping. Hence, this study set out to compare adoptive mothers’ and fathers’ mental health, attachment styles, dyadic coping, and biographical knowledge, and to identify predictors of dyadic coping. 62 mothers and 40 fathers (mean age: 46 years) raising an anonymously born adoptee answered online or paper-pencil versions of the Brief Symptom Inventory, Vulnerable Attachment Style Questionnaire, Dyadic Coping Inventory, Child Behavior Checklist, and a checklist of biographical data. Descriptive analyses showed that biographical knowledge was generally low in adoptive parents. More information was available on the birth mother than the birth father, with letters being the most common memorial. Furthermore, student t-tests revealed few differences: adoptive mothers reported to be more anxious and rated their ability to communicate stress and common dyadic coping as higher than did adoptive fathers. Finally, a hierarchical linear regression identified knowledge of more biographical data, parents’ older age as well as child’s younger age and higher psychopathology scores as predictors of better adoptive parents’ dyadic coping. These findings highlight the difficult task of gathering biographical information whilst maintaining the birth mother’s anonymity. They also stress the need of further research which may inform policies tailored to the specific needs of adoptive parents in the context of anonymous birth.

Early adversity and children's regulatory deficits: Does postadoption parenting facilitate recovery in postinstitutionalized children?

Children reared in orphanages typically experience the lack of stable, reliable caregivers and are at increased risk for deficits in regulatory abilities including difficulties in inhibitory control, attention, and emotion regulation. Although adoption results in a radical shift in caregiving quality, there remains variation in postadoption parenting, yet little research has examined postadoption parenting that may promote recovery in children experiencing early life adversity in the form of institutional care. Participants included 93 postinstitutionalized children adopted between 15 and 36 months of age and 52 nonadopted same-aged peers. Parenting was assessed four times during the first 2 years postadoption (at 2, 8, 16, and 24 months postadoption) and children's regulation was assessed at age 5 (M age = 61.68 months) and during kindergarten (M age = 71.55 months). Multiple parenting dimensions including sensitivity/responsiveness, structure/limit setting, and consistency in routines were examined. Both parental sensitivity and structure moderated the effect of preadoption adversity on children's emotion regulation while greater consistency was associated with better inhibitory control and fewer attention problems. Results support the notion that postadoption parenting during toddlerhood and the early preschool years promotes better regulation skills following early adversity.

"What Makes Us Strong?": Dyadic Coping in Italian Prospective Adoptive Couples

Becoming an adoptive parent is a particularly stressful transition, given the additional challenges couples have to face. Dyadic coping, an under-investigated dimension in the adoption literature, may play a relevant role for prospective adoptive couples' ability to better cope with the adoptive process. The general aim of the present study was to investigate the association between dyadic coping and relationship functioning, in terms of relationship satisfaction and couple generativity, among prospective adoptive couples. Participants were 103 prospective adoptive couples pursuing international adoption in Italy. Couples were asked to fill in a self-report questionnaire. Results of the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model showed that prospective adoptive partners reported high levels of positive and common dyadic coping and low levels of negative dyadic coping - suggesting partners' ability to successfully cope together with a common stressor - a high level of relationship satisfaction, and an average level of couple generativity. Moreover, analyses showed significant actor effects of one's own perception of the partner's dyadic coping (positive, negative, and common) on one's own relationship satisfaction and on couple generativity for both wives and husbands. With regard to partner effects, we found that both partners' perceptions of the other's dyadic coping responses (positive, negative, and common) were associated with the other's relationship satisfaction, with the only exception of wives' perceptions of common dyadic coping, which were not associated with their husbands' relationship satisfaction. As for couple generativity, the only significant partner effect referred to negative dyadic coping responses for both wives and husbands.

Growth recovery in newly arrived international adoptees in Italy: relation to parenting stress

BACKGROUND

Following initial adversities, most internationally adopted children arrive with significant growth delays. Postplacement recovery has been widely documented, but research about risk or protective factors is still limited. Even less is known about the relationship between growth recovery and the quality of the family environment.

METHODS

Twenty-eight children in 26 adoptive families were involved in this longitudinal study. A comprehensive evaluation (including anthropometry, cognitive assessment [using the Leiter International Performance Scale-Revised], and completion by both parents of the Parenting Stress Index - Short Form) was done at arrival of the child, and 1 year later.

RESULTS

Results evidenced that on arrival nearly half of children had growth measurements in the normal range. All the children showed a significant recovery in height and weight at 6 and 12 months postplacement. Initial and follow-up growth measurements correlated strongly. Growth recovery was related to the age of the child at adoption, the proportion of time the child had resided in institutional care, as well as parenting stress. Results suggested that the higher the parenting stress experienced the less improvements occurred in children: for mothers for height and weight, for fathers for all the growth indicators.

CONCLUSIONS

Results suggested the critical importance of family factor in influencing children's growth recovery.