Adoptive Family Formation, Integration and Developmental Stages

1. Adoptive Family Formation, Integration and Developmental Stages

2. Special Thanks! The Center for Adoption Support and Education thanks Susan Livingston Smith for developing the material on which this module is based! 2

3. Before we begin . . . What adoption issues arose for you in your practice since our last session together? 3

4. Learning Objectives Describe research evidence indicating greater challenges in adoptive families. Describe salient issues in adoption that surface again and again over time. 4

5. Learning Objectives Identify developmental tasks for adopted children and adoptive parents at different stages of the adoption family life cycle. Identify several pre-adoptive risk factors for children and families and describe from research specific ways in which these factors influence adjustment. 5

6. Learning Objectives Identify factors associated with resilience for children and families. Demonstrate skills in assisting parents in re-framing their children’s behaviors in light of the child’s history. 6

7. Learning Objectives Describe guiding principles for adoption preservation work. Develop a treatment plan with adoptive families that incorporates unique aspects of adoptive families. 7

8. Adoptive Families with Challenges Think of an adoptive family who was having serious difficulties that you have worked with – preferably within the past year. Take a couple of minutes and jot down the presenting problems in this family and the top 3 factors that you believe contributed to these problems. If you have not worked with an adoptive family who was having serious difficulties, please think about factors that might contribute to adoptive family difficulties based on what you have learned so far. 8

9. Adopted Children 9

10. Handout #8.1: Examining Adoption Outcome Research What are the three or four research findings that either surprised you or validated your own experiences with adopted children, youth and adults? 10

11. The Research Almost all adoptive parents are satisfied with their adoptions and very committed to their children. 11

12. The Research Adoptive parents face more challenges in parenting their children 12

13. The Research Child behavior problems are the primary reason that families seek therapeutic services 13

14. The Research: The 2007 National Survey of Adoptive Parents This study compared data on 1,782 adopted children and about 90,000 other U.S. children in the National Survey of Children’s Health. It found that over one-third of adopted children received at least one rehabilitative service, such as family or crisis counseling, mental health care, or substance abuse treatment. 14

15. The Research: The 2007 National Survey of Adoptive Parents Among adopted youth ages 12-17, 54 percent received a rehabilitative service. The percentage of adopted children receiving mental health care by type of adoption was: • Foster care adoption: 46% • Private domestic adoption: 33% • International adoption: 35% Among the general population of children ages 6-17, 10% received mental health care. 15

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17. The Research To what extent do these research findings fit with your own experiences in working with adoptive families? 17

18. Normative Developmental Challenges in Adoption 18

19. Handout #8.2: Normative Developmental Challenges in Adoption What are your thoughts about the concept of the “adoption life cycle”? 19

20. Pre-Adoption Development Tasks of Adoptive Parents Walkabout Activity 20

21. Post-Adoption Development Tasks of Adoptive Parents Walkabout Activity 21

22. Small Group Work Adopted children and their families face developmental challenges that are interwoven with the typical developmental challenges that all individuals confront. What are the central developmental challenges for adopted individuals? Develop a list of at least 5 development challenges for adopted children, youth and adults. 22

23. Report Out 23

24. Key Developmental Issues • Learning one’s adoption story • Coping with loss • Searching for answers 24

25. Key Developmental Issues • Coping with adoption stigma • Integrating adoption into identity • Validating affiliation with two families 25

26. Key Developmental Issues • Consideration of actively searching for birth family • Coming to terms with the impact of trauma 26

27. What are qualities of communicative openness? 27

28. Developmental Issues • Identity: Beyond Culture Camp: Promoting Healthy Identity Formation in Adoption http://www.adoptioninstitute.org/publications/2009_11_BeyondCultureCamp.pdf • Dr. David’s Brodzinsky’s 2006 study on openness in adoption Brodzinsky, D. (2006). Family structural openness and communication openness as predictors in the adjustment of adopted children. Adoption Quarterly, 9(4), 1-18. 28

29. Small Group Work Handout #9.3 In your small groups, review Handout #9.3 Principles for Adoptive Parents on Communicative Openness about Adoption. These principles could be shared with parents on this or another handout, in trainings, or in your counseling sessions. Select two of the principles and discuss how you would specifically work with adoptive parents around these principles. 29

30. Report Out 30

31. Break Time! 31

32. Factors Shaping Adoption: Risk and Resilience 32

33. Handout #9.4: Factors Shaping Adjustment in Adoptive Families What were your key “take aways” from your reading? 33

34. Risk Factors, Stress and Coping 34

35. The Stress and Coping Model of Adoption Adjustment 35

36. The Stress and Coping Model of Adoption Adjustment • The primary assumption is that children's adjustment to adoption is determined largely by how they view or appraise their adoption experience and the type of coping mechanisms they use to deal with adoption-related stress. 36

37. The Stress and Coping Model of Adoption Adjustment • When children view adoption as stigmatizing, threatening, or as involving loss, a pattern of negative emotions associated with stress-for example, confusion, anxiety, sadness, embarrassment, anger-is likely to be experienced. 37

38. What has been your experience in working with children who are distressed by having been adopted? How have you seen them attempt to cope with being adopted? 38

39. The Stress and Coping Model of Adoption Adjustment • Although no one pattern of coping is necessarily associated with healthier adjustment, research generally suggests that overreliance on avoidance strategies is often tied to increased adjustment problems, both generally and specifically with regard to adoption. 39

40. The Stress and Coping Model of Adoption Adjustment • Adoption is assumed to involve loss and stigma and, hence, to be potentially stressful for children, even for those youngsters placed as infants. However, the degree to which children experience adoption-related stress and the success they have in coping with it are highly variable. 40

41. The Stress and Coping Model of Adoption Adjustment • It is not until children begin to understand the meaning and implications of adoption—around 5 to 7 years of age—that one expects to see increased sensitivity to adoption-related stigma and loss, as well as a shift toward more ambivalent feelings about being adopted. 41

42. Are there certain child characteristics or experiences that may make it more likely that children will have more negative views about being adopted? 42

43. The Stress and Coping Model of Adoption Adjustment • Genetic, prenatal, and birth factors also appear to play a role in children's adoption adjustment. These biological factors are believed to influence the children's well-being through their impact on cognitive, social, and emotional development. 43

44. Why is it that these genetic, prenatal and birth factors might play such an important role in a child’s adoption adjustment? 44

45. The Stress and Coping Model of Adoption Adjustment • Finally, the model also recognizes the importance of societal, interpersonal, and familial factors in children's adoption adjustment, as well as the importance of the child's pre-placement history. 45

46. What factors might impact a child’s adoption adjustment? 46

47. Pre-Placement Factors • Fact of foster care placement • Age at time of foster care placement • History of abuse/neglect/abandonment (prior to foster care or while in care) • Length of time in foster care • Number of foster caregivers • Type of foster care placement (kin, unrelated foster family, group, residential) • Previous disrupted adoptive placements or dissolved adoptions • Sibling relationships and connections • For internationally adopted children: similar factors associated with orphanage or alternative caregiver care 47

48. Societal Factors • Beliefs about how he/she is perceived as a “foster” child and as an “adoptive” child • How the child is treated in social situations • Whether there are other adopted children in the family • Whether there are other adopted children at school, in the neighborhood 48

49. Interpersonal and Familial Factors • The child’s relationship with adoptive parents • The child’s relationship with other children in the home • The child’s relationships/connections with siblings • The child’s relationships/connections with birth parents/extended birth family members 49

50. Handout #9.5 Potential Risk Factors in Different Types of Adoption 50