Depression and Anxiety Symptoms of British Adoptive Parents: A Prospective Four-Wave Longitudinal Study

Professional Quality of Life of Foster and Kinship Carers in Australia, United Kingdom, and the United States: A Scoping Review

Professional quality of life (ProQOL) refers to workers' subjective feelings associated with work involved in helping others who have experienced trauma. It consists of positive and negative aspects, that is, subscales of compassion satisfaction, and burnout and secondary traumatic stress. Foster and kinship caring inherently involves risks associated with exposure to the trauma responses of children in their care. This exposure can lead to poor ProQOL, carer attrition, and placement instability. While limited studies specifically explore ProQOL of carers, many studies have examined factors and interventions related to ProQOL. However, there is a lack of synthesis of these studies. To fill such a research gap, we undertook a scoping review of 70 empirical studies from Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, published from 2012 to 2022 reporting on ProQOL, and its related factors and concepts. We applied a multilevel ecosocial construct to examine complex interrelationships between private and governance settings to better understand factors related to ProQOL of carers and interventions aimed to improve it in these dynamic systems. In our review, some studies showed positive outcomes for carers, such as reduced stress or burnout associated with training. However, there was insufficient attention to factors associated with ProQOL at relational and sociopolitical levels. It is crucial to improve carers' ProQOL or well-being to ensure their retention and placement stability. Long-term systemic improvements require interventions across different levels of the system.

Influencing factors and risk prediction modeling of maternal postpartum depression: a cross-sectional study in Chinese puerperal women of sitting the month

Objective

This study aims to investigate the occurrence of maternal postpartum depression (PPD) during menstruation and analyze the influencing factors and risk prediction modeling of maternal PPD in Chinese puerperal women of sitting the month.

Methods

A total of 286 mothers were selected using convenience sampling, who came for a routine postpartum follow-up visit were surveyed, including face-to-face, telephone, and online. They completed questionnaires including the basic profile questionnaire, Postpartum Partner Support Scale (PPSS), Edinburgh PPD Scale (EPDS), Parenting Self-Efficacy Scale (SICS), and Simple Coping Style Questionnaire (SCSQ), who were advised to complete the survey alone, in private, reducing the impact of husband's presence on the quality of the questionnaire. Variables showing statistical significance in the one-way analysis were further analyzed using logistic regression analysis. The predictive value of the logistic regression model was analyzed using the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve (ROC), and the predictive reliability was expressed as the area under the ROC [Area Under the Curve (AUC)].

Results

The total score of PPD was 7.78 ± 4.57, and 22 people (7.69%) experienced depression during the postpartum period. PPD was found to be correlated with postpartum partner support, positive coping, negative coping, and parenting self-efficacy, with correlation coefficient values of -0.63, 0.62, 0.56, and - 0.70, respectively (all p < 0.05). Logistic regression analysis revealed that postpartum partner support and parenting self-efficacy were independent factors influencing PPD, with odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) of 0.76 (0.61 ~ 0.94) and 0.83 (0.75 ~ 0.93), respectively both p < 0.05.The area under the curve, sensitivity, and specificity for postpartum partner support and parenting self-efficacy were 1.00 (95% confidence intervals 0.99 ~ 1.00), 99.24, and 90.91%.

Conclusion

Postpartum partner support and parenting self-efficacy independently predict the occurrence of PPD. Healthcare professionals and maternal families should prioritize timely attention to maternal partner support and parenting issues to reduce the occurrence of PPD.

Adoptive parents' finances and employment status: a 5-year longitudinal study

We investigated risk and facilitating factors related to families' change in finances and employment over 5 years following adoption of a child from local authority care in a prospective, longitudinal study of children placed for adoption between 2014 and 2015 (N = 96). Parents completed questionnaires at approximately 5, 21, 36, 48 and 60 months post-placement. We used time series analysis to examine the impact of child (e.g. pre-placement experiences, mental health), family structure (e.g. number of siblings, parent relationship status), and parent (e.g. mental health) factors on change in household income and parent employment status after adoption. We also examined the tendency for parents to comment on employment and finances and the emotional valence of their comments to gauge their concern about their circumstances. Children's mental health problems were associated with primary caregivers reducing their time spent in employment and parents' tendency to comment on their financial and work circumstances. Children who experienced more moves in care were more likely to have a primary caregiver not in full-time work, as were children with higher prosocial behaviour scores. Being in full-time work was associated with parents' symptoms of anxiety. We also detected associations between structural features of the family and changes in income and employment. This study represents one of the first empirical investigations of factors associated with the socioeconomic features of adoptive families' lives and informs ongoing discussion regarding the support needs of families and the timing, nature, and delivery of post-adoption professional services.

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.