Children who age out of foster care face adjustments and mental health issues at higher rates than their peers, but those who are adopted have the opportunity to heal from previous trauma and experience better outcomes. To create healthy family systems for adopted children, adoptive parents need support and guidance as they personally adjust and help their children adjust to a new family system. Previous research has focused on child identifiers rather than on the broader family system in efforts to understand adoption success and failure. In this transcendental phenomenological study, adoptive parents provided their lived experiences of support during the adoption process. The results were analyzed using Giorgi, Giorgi, and Morley's descriptive phenomenological psychological method and the results were framed using an adapted version of Bronfenbrenner's ecological model. The results offered experiences of support at all 4 levels of the ecological model and provided a framework to use for future research to understand the influences of the sources of support and a guideline for agencies and counselors to use when serving adoptive families. The results can aid in the proactive development of training and support services for adoptive families and provide information for professionals by offering insight into the nontraditional structure of adoptive families. This information may also be used to inform counseling programs accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs that offer the marriage, couples, and families specialization.

ABSTRACT The purpose of the present study was to explore the potential influence of direct-to-consumer genetic test results of a pre-adoptive foster child on the decision of the prospective adoptive foster parents to finalize or disrupt their adoption of the foster child. A quantitative survey was conducted using a sample of foster parents with three distinct statuses as a foster parent. They included, foster parents in the process of adopting their foster child, foster parents awaiting placement of a foster child in their home, and individuals in the process of completing training to become foster parents. The study participants were from a foster family agency that specializes in foster adoptions and all study participants had indicated they wanted to adopt a foster child. The foster family agency has two locations, one in Orange County and the other in San Bernardino County. Study data was collected through the use of a self-report questionnaire at five different foster family agency events. Twelve original survey questions were designed to measure three core areas: knowledge of prospective adoptive foster parents on the information direct-to-consumer genetic testing can provide; attitudes of prospective adoptive foster parents regarding the use of direct-to-consumer genetic testing as a pre-adoption screening tool; and, if direct-to-consumer genetic test results of a foster child influences the decision of prospective adoptive foster parents to finalize or disrupt a foster adoption. Using SPSS software to analyze data, descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation analyses were conducted between the three different foster parent statuses and the four questions designed to measure the core area of if direct-to-consumer genetic test results of a foster child influences the decision of prospective adoptive foster parents to finalize or disrupt a foster adoption. More than half of the survey participants, identified as women (n=39, 54.9%) and 32 (23.9%) identified as men. Results showed that there was a significant relationship found between the direct-to-consumer genetic test results of a foster child to influence the prospective adoptive foster parent to stop adoption proceedings for the child with the status of foster parents awaiting placement of the first foster child into their home.

[pt] A desistência do filho ou devolução após a concretização da adoção não é reconhecida juridicamente, uma vez que a adoção possui caráter irrevogável. Assim, a devolução se configuraria como abandono, uma vez que o filho por adoção tem os mesmos direitos que o filho biológico. Todavia, durante o estágio de convivência e/ou guarda provisória, a devolução costuma acontecer por motivos diversos. Esta tese teve como objetivo investigar a vivência do processo de devolução de crianças/adolescentes na perspectiva dos pais adotantes. Realizou-se uma pesquisa qualitativa, na qual foram feitas entrevistas semiestruturadas com onze sujeitos independentes, nove mulheres e dois homens, moradores de diferentes estados do Brasil, que passaram por adoções malsucedidas. Verificou-se que o processo que leva à desistência do filho se dá, geralmente, pela intensificação dos conflitos durante o convívio mais direto. Os adotantes buscaram encontrar os motivos para o fracasso na adoção por meio da responsabilização dos profissionais à frente do caso e/ou da criança/adolescente. A temporalidade para a gestação simbólica do filho pareceu sofrer interferências tanto psíquicas quanto burocráticas. As falhas no reconhecimento da alteridade do filho apareceram como pano de fundo importante nas desistências do processo de adoção. O sofrimento dos adotantes se mostrou como aspecto que necessita de maior atenção, sobretudo nos momentos iniciais do estabelecimento do vínculo. Concluímos que o sentimento de incapacidade diante do projeto parental necessita de acolhimento e escuta por parte das equipes técnicas para que intervenções junto ao vínculo parento-filial possam ser feitas. / [en] The child s abandonment or odoption disruption is not legally recognized, since the adoption is irrevocable. Thus, the adoption disruption would be configured as abandonment, since the child by adoption has the same rights as the biological child. However, during the coexistence and / or provisional custody stage, the return usually happens for different reasons. This thesis aimed to investigate the experience of the adoption disruption of children / adolescents from the perspective of the adopting parents. A qualitative research was carried out, in which semi-structured interviews were conducted with eleven independent subjects, nine women and two men, living in different states of Brazil, who underwent unsuccessful adoptions. It was found that the process that leads to the abandonment of the child is usually due to the intensification of conflicts during the most direct interaction. The adopters sought to find the reasons for the failure in the adoption by holding the professionals in charge of the case and / or the child / adolescent accountable. The temporality for the child s symbolic pregnancy seemed to suffer both psychic and bureaucratic interference. Failures in recognizing the child s otherness appeared as an important background in the withdrawal from the adoption process. The adopters suffering proved to be an aspect that needs more attention, especially in the initial moments of establishing the bond. We conclude that the feeling of incapacity in the face of the parental project needs to be welcomed and listened to by the technical teams so that interventions with the parent-child bond can be made.