Literature Review
Adoptive parents experience many challenges during the transition into parenthood. “With the increase in adoptions in recent decades, families are in need of more services and support in order to help them thrive once formed”. (Merritt & Festinger, 2013, p. 1913). According Merritt & Festinger, (2013), “As recently as 2001, only five studies formally assessed post-adoption service programs”. Much research has focused a lot on biological parents and post-partum challenges; yet current research shows that adoptive parents face similar challenges as they adapt to life as parents (McKay, Ross & Goldberg, 2010, p. 125). According to McKay et al, (2010) adoptive parents face a unique set of challenges such as “experiences with infertility, an increased likelihood of parenting children with preexisting behavioral/emotional difficulties, parenting first-time at an older age, parenting children of a different race and the stigma attached to adoption”.
The transition to becoming adoptive parents usually happens quickly. Because of this, adoptive parents usually don’t have the timeframe to get use to their new roles, ultimately having a more difficult time working through their feelings (Levy-Schiff, Goldshmidt & Har-Even, 1991, p 131). Those individuals seeking adoption after the stress of infertility need to ensure that they have adequately resolved their grief and feelings surrounding the issue (Levy-Schiff et al. 1991). According to Levy-Schiff (1991), adoptive parents may also need to deal with social stigma of not having biological children and possible displays of pity or consolation instead of support and happiness (p. 131). However, dealing with the stressors of infertility and possibly being older parents at th...
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...ay to help children and their new families connect.
Therapists teach parenting skills and parents receive extensive psycho-educational education regarding the effects of neglect and abuse. Therapists also use narrative therapy that focuses on attachment with the families. The parents are role play with their child and let them know that they would have been protected and had all their needs met in their adoptive homes if they had been there since birth. This type of play encourages the child to grow and allows them to be angry at the abuser. It helps to empower the child in their past experiences and find a different resolution in a safe and supportive environment (Wimmer et al, 2010, p. 122).
Newly formed adoptive families face a myriad of challenges. With the right support and assistance, these new bonds can be successful and past wounds can begin to heal.
Adoption always appears as a happy time for the child and the new parents, however, internally it might not seem happy at all. According to Lydia Tarr, a parent who recently adopted a child, “stress is amplified by one hundred percent during the adoptive process.” (Karlsson) The Tenenbaum parents unfortunately couldn't handle that stress, and instead of taking Margot back, ignored her and the stress altogether. In th...
Many potential adopted parents have experienced heartbreak, anguish and other problems that can be associated with adoption. There is an imbalance in the Nations foster care system and the system needs to be strengthening and the quality of services improved.
Child, Family, and School Social Worker make average annual earnings of $38, 280. The employment of such social workers is expected to grow by twenty percent between 2012 and 2020, per the BLS (“Adoption”). Some counselors find that because adoption touches on so many family issues, it evolves naturally out of a more general practice. A difficult prejudice that adoption counselors face is the perception that they are baby stealers or baby sellers. A birth mother may require help making the difficult decision to give a child up for adoption. Many adoption counselors are social workers who have come to focus on adoption because they have had a personal experience with adoption (“CFNC.org”). This is somewhat the case in my situation. My parents were about to start the adoption process when my mom found out that she was pregnant. For Glory To, the most difficult time is when placement doesn’t wor...
Purvis, Karyn, David Cross, and Jacquelyn Pennings. "Truth-based relational intervention: interactive principles for adopted children with social-emotional needs." Journal of Humanistic Counseling, Education and development 2009: 3-20. Print.
...o grow up in home where there is neglect, abuse and trauma often miss out on a normal development with attachment and trust. Without that attachment and trust, neglected children are at risk and vulnerable to suffer consequences and risk physically, emotionally, psychologically, educationally, interpersonally that can have a damaging effect on the child’s life and development and can develop into PTSD. However, under certain circumstances, given an opportunity to attach to healthy adults in a positive way, children can overcome even brutal childhoods and injuries. Lastly, it shows how an adult or parent who is willing to attach, trust, help and work with a child, can radically change the course of that child’s life by acting as an advisor, detecting and solving problems, and being there even in the middle of conflict and eventually helping the child succeed in life.
The National Adoption Center reports that fifty-two percent of adoptable children have attachment disorder symptoms. It was also found that the older the child when adopted, the higher the risk of social maladjustment (Benson et al., 1998). This is to say that a child who is adopted at one-week of age will have a better chance of “normal'; adjustment than a child who is adopted at the age of ten. This may be due in part to the probability that an infant will learn how to trust, where as a ten-year-old may have more difficulty with this task, depending on his history. Eric Erickson, a developmental theorist, discusses trust issues in his theory of development. The first of Erickson’s stages of development is Trust v. Mistrust. A child who experiences neglect or abuse can have this stage of development severely damaged. An adopted infant may have the opportunity to fully learn trust, where as an older child may have been shuffled from foster home to group home as an infant, thereby never learning trust. Even though Trust v. Mistrust is a major stage of development, “the greatest psychological risk for adopted children occurs during the middle childhood and adolescent years'; (McRoy et al., 1990). As children grow and change into adolescents, they begin to search for an identity by finding anchoring points with which to relate. Unfortunately, adopted children do not have a biological example to which to turn (Horner & Rosenberg, 1991), unless they had an open adoption in which they were able to form a relationship with their biological families as well as their adoptive ones. Also key to the development of trust is the ab...
According to American academy and adolescent psychiatry, about 120,000 children are adopted in the United States alone. That is a lot of children that need to find a new home to stay in. Not only do adoptions affect the child after they are adopted, no matter the age; but adoption also affects the parents giving their child up for adoption. There are many types of adoptions. Along with that, there are many reasons for giving the child up for adoption. There are three main perspectives that I will be talking about. One function would be the structural functionalism. How society cooperates. The second would be the conflict perspective. The third would be symbolic interactionism approach. There are many different aspects of adoption, making it
The idea of adoption has been around far longer than the formal legal system of adoption in place today. In the bible, there is a passage detailing the adoption of Ester by her cousin, Mordecai, after the death of her parents. Ancient Greeks, Egyptians, Romans, and Babylonians all had their own systems of adoption. Adoption systems differ from country to country. United States citizens who internationally adopt today allow for the blending of cultures, languages, traditions, and ideals. In contrast, the practice of adult adoption in Japan is a particularly interesting system used quite differently and reflects a lot of traditional Japanese culture itself.
Current statistics show that open adoptions are increasing in the United States. Despite the challenges and emotional issues involved in open adoption, its incidence is growing and providing a means for families to share their lives in different ways and allowing adoptive children to feel positive about themselves and about adoption.
Parents have the tendency to overlook how lucky they are to have had the ability to create their own children. Many do not recognize what a true blessing it is to have kids, and that others are not fortunate enough to experience that miracle. Ten percent of couples endure infertility (Advantages) so they must consider other options. A very popular choice is adoption. It is not only a good alternative for the couple, but also for the child who needs a loving home.
Barth, R., Crea, T., John, K., Thoburn, J. & Quinton, D. (2005). Beyond attachment theory and therapy: Towards sensitive and evidence-based interventions with foster and adoptive families in distress. Child and Family Social Work, 10, 257-268.
“Adopting one child won 't change the world: but for that child, the world will change.” (Unknown)(Buzzle.com). Adoption can take place in multiple shapes, forms, and fashions. You can adopt from a local adoption agency, or adopt from an orphanage half way around the world. You can adopt a child whose parents are no longer living, or you could adopt from a young mother who is not ready to raise a child. You can adopt one child who has touched your heart from an orphanage in Uganda, or a set of triplets being moved around from house to house in foster care. There are still further motivations and reasons for adopting. What if you and your spouse are unable to become pregnant? The desire to be parents does not diminish with the lack of
The best things in life come free to us. Our parents are one of the most important and fundamental in our life. However, people generally wonder, do adopted children feel the same way we do? Adoption is not easy, it's full of risks, simply because no one is aware of the future, the person adopting a child will never know how the child will react once he's aware he's adopted. Will they grow to love them, hate them, admire them or fear them? All of these unanswerable questions makes any person think twice before having the courage to adopt. Adoption never fails to put down any parents' feelings, whether they were homeless, abandoned, poor or runaway children and also families who don't have the option of being biological parents, the pleasure it gives to all of those people exceeds all of it's expected problems. However; adoption has some positive sides. It's one of life's fair treaties. It gives hope and integrity to the families who weren't fortunate to conceive; moreover, it changes the life of the child forever mostly positively. That's why many people support adoption worldwide.
Becoming a new parent is a life changing and stressful event even under the best conditions. For adoptive parents, the stress is often acute because they become
According to Lisa Ware, "One promising treatment for families who have a history of child maltreatment is parent-child interaction therapy". This type of therapy focuses on the interactions that the child and the parent have. It coaches the parents in how to interact with their child the proper way. Along with interaction therapy, the child and parents are also given separate therapy. The child’s therapy is centered on the abuse they received, their social and academic skills, and teaching ways of relaxation and anger management. While the therapy for the parents are more concerned with finding ways so that the parents can interact with their children in the right way. The therapy gives the parents proper techniques for controlling their anger and allows them to identify how they view abuse. These examples of techniques practiced in therapy have shown promising results, but there are many different forms of therapy that also work. When dealing with individuals and families who suffered from abuse or were the one's abusing, the therapy needs to be fitted to the specific needs of the individuals as well as the whole family. If a child suffers from a certain problem, it is the job of the therapist to focus on ways to help the child with that specific problem. A generalized therapy plan to help everyone with their problems will not work because each individual experiences different things when faced with abuse, which is why the therapy needs to be specific to the needs of the