Trajectories of birth family contact in domestic adoptions

Contact with mothers for children in out-of-home-care: Group-based trajectory modelling from the Pathways of Care Longitudinal Study (POCLS)

BACKGROUND

Good quality contact with birth parents is considered important to successful out-of-home care (OOHC) placements.

OBJECTIVE

There is, however, an absence of empirical evidence about contact needs of children in the OOHC system and how these needs change over time.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

The current analysis analyzed four waves of data from the Pathways of Care Longitudinal Study in Australia relating to 1507 children on yearly frequency of contact with mothers, relationship quality with mothers, and the extent that contact met the needs of the child.

METHODS

Group-based trajectory modelling was used to examine in what ways frequency of contact, child-mother relationships and child's needs for maintaining family contact were associated over time.

RESULTS

The analysis showed a positive association between these three outcomes that also held true as the children aged, with five distinct patterns: (1) low frequency and poor relationship (low poor) (14.5 % of the sample); (2) moderate frequency and poor relationship (moderate poor) (30.3 %); (3) increasing frequency and improving relationship (improving) (19.8 %); (4) declining frequency and declining relationship (declining) (19.5 %); and (5) high frequency, good relationship (high good) (15.9 %). Care type, child demographics, child socioemotional wellbeing and unsupervised contact arrangements were significantly associated with trajectory group membership.

CONCLUSIONS

These results can be used to inform policy and practice around contact and to better match the heterogenous contact needs for children in OOHC.

Birth Family Contact from Childhood to Adulthood: Adjustment and Adoption Outcomes in Adopted Young Adults

Experiences of contact between adopted persons and birth family members have implications for psychological adjustment of adopted persons. The current study utilizes four contact trajectory groups, spanning from middle childhood to young adulthood and encompassing three aspects of birth family contact, in predicting psychological adjustment and adoption-related outcomes in adopted young adults. Data come from a longitudinal study of adoptive families in which adopted persons were domestically adopted in infancy by same-race parents in the United States. Adopted young adults in the group characterized by sustained high levels of contact and satisfaction with contact over time ('Extended Contact') displayed lower levels of psychological distress and higher levels of psychological well-being than adopted persons in the group characterized by contact that increased over time but remained limited ('Limited Contact'). Generally, adopted persons within the group characterized by consistent lack of contact ('No Contact') and the group characterized by contact that was initially present but ended ('Stopped Contact') did not differ in distress and well-being from those in the 'Extended Contact' group. No group differences were found on adoption dynamics and identity, however young adults in the 'Extended Contact' group generally reported more positive relationships with their birth mothers than those in the other groups. Findings are discussed in the context of heterogeneity in contact experiences and implications for policy and practice.

Birth relatives' perspectives about same-gender parent adoptive family placements

Little research exists about the experiences of birth relatives connected to lesbian and gay (LG) parent adoptive families. Using mixed methods, we examined the perspectives of birth relatives and other adoption triad members (adoptive parents, adoptees). First, from interviews with birth relatives (N = 62) in the USA, we explored openness to same-gender parent adoptive placements. Next, we conducted a thematic analysis from interviews with a subsample (n = 24) whose child was placed with LG adoptive parents about why LG parents were chosen. Finally, eight (of these 24) were connected to seven LG adoptive parent families who were participants in a larger study. Among these adoption triads, we investigated how members described their contact experiences. Results showed that most birth relatives were open to placements with same-gender couples, and those who had done so often made this decision intentionally for various specific reasons. Birth relatives tended to be satisfied with adoptive family contact and desired more in the future. Adoption triad members generally reported warm feelings toward each other and commitments to continued contact. These findings provide insight about diverse conceptualizations of kinship, how contact can be effectively navigated across complex family relationships, and implications for adoption practice and policy.

Development of the Tool to Empower Parental Telling and Talking (TELL Tool): A digital decision aid intervention about children's origins from donated gametes or embryos

Objective

This study aimed to create and develop a well-designed, theoretically driven, evidence-based, digital, decision Tool to Empower Parental Telling and Talking (TELL Tool) prototype.

Methods

This developmental study used an inclusive, systematic, and iterative process to formulate a prototype TELL Tool: the first digital decision aid for parents who have children 1 to 16 years of age and used donated gametes or embryos to establish their families. Recommendations from the International Patient Decision Aids Standards Collaboration and from experts in decision aid development, digital health interventions, design thinking, and instructional design guided the process.

Results

The extensive developmental process incorporated researchers, clinicians, parents, children, and other stakeholders, including donor-conceived adults. We determined the scope and target audience of the decision aid and formed a steering group. During design work, we used the decision-making process model as the guiding framework for selecting content. Parents' views and decisional needs were incorporated into the prototype through empirical research and review, appraisal, and synthesis of the literature. Clinicians' perspectives and insights were also incorporated. We used the experiential learning theory to guide the delivery of the content through a digital distribution plan. Following creation of initial content, including storyboards and scripts, an early prototype was redrafted and redesigned based on feedback from the steering group. A final TELL Tool prototype was then developed for alpha testing.

Conclusions

Detailing our early developmental processes provides transparency that can benefit the donor-conceived community as well as clinicians and researchers, especially those designing digital decision aids. Future research to evaluate the efficacy of the TELL Tool is planned.

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.

Adoptive Parenting Cognitions: Acknowledgement of Differences as a Predictor of Adolescents' Attachment to Parents

OBJECTIVE

Adoptive parents' acknowledgement of differences is defined as the propensity to think that adoptive and nonadoptive families are different in important ways. Few studies have examined the implications of such cognitions for the parent-child bond.

DESIGN

Structural equation modeling was utilized to examine the relation between adoptive parents' acknowledgement of differences and adolescents' later attachment to their parents in a sample of within-race domestic infant adoptions. Data from 189 adoptive families were drawn from two waves (middle childhood, adolescence) of the Minnesota/Texas Adoption Research Project, a longitudinal study of openness in adoption.

RESULTS

Levels of acknowledgement of differences displayed by the adoptive mother and adoptive father during middle childhood positively predicted adopted adolescents' feelings of attachment towards the respective parent 8 years later. This relation depended on adopted adolescents' attitude toward adoption-related communication during middle childhood as well as the adoptive family's level of openness during middle childhood.

CONCLUSIONS

Acknowledgement of differences in adoptive families has positive implications for the parent-child bond.