This study examined perceived child-parent relationships and child adjustment in families with both adopted and natural children. Of interest was the relationship between these perceptions and the social and emotional adjustment of the children. Perceived parent-child relationships were measured by the Child Parent Relationship Scale developed by Swanson. The California Test of Personality was utilized to measure the children's adjustment.

The problem of this study is to investigate the differences in perceived parental behavior patterns, child rearing attitudes, and learning disabilities in natural and adoptive families. The purposes of this study are to compare the child rearing attitudes of adoptive and natural parents, to compare the child's perception of parental behavior in adoptive and natural families, to discover if the two groups differ in their ability to predict their children's perceptions of parental behavior, and to investigate the incidence of learning disabilities among adoptive children. Findings indicate that significant differences exist between natural and adoptive parents as measured by the PAS and the CRPBI-R. Adoptive fathers are not as likely as natural fathers to feel it is impossible to change a child from his already determined way of behaving and believe parental or environmental influences to be more important than natural or inherent causations. The younger the child was at the time of adoption, the better the adoptive parents were able to predict what the child would report about parental discipline. Adoptive parents are also found to be more accepting of childhood behaviors and feelings and have more mutual trust and understanding of their children than are natural parents. There is not a significantly greater proportion of adopted children in Plan A than natural children.

The abstract is only available to students, faculty and staff at PSU

A descriptive study was conducted to investigate the adoption experience within the family. Adoptive families who participated in this study were assumed to be a relatively heterogeneous sample of the target population - families with at least one adopted child who had been adopted early in life, and who was presently 14-18 years of age. Thirteen adoptive families participated in the study. Qualitative data regarding each individual's perception of the adoption experience was obtained through semi-structured interviews. Each participant also completed the Family Environment Scale (Moos, 1974), which was used as a descriptive measure only. Data from the interviews underwent a qualitative data analysis to arrive at the themes and patterns that described the adoptee's and the adoptive parents' experiences. Parent-child perceptual discrepancies were also analysed to assess the similarities and the differences in family perceptions regarding the adoption experience. Conclusions that can be drawn based on the results of the qualitative analysis is that adoptive families appear to be vulnerable to problems during the adolescent stage of the family life cycle because of the adoptee's emerging curiosity and the problems of openly communicating these concerns within the family. Results from this study also point to the need for adopting couples to receive education regarding the role of adoptive parenthood, and counsellors who work with adoptive families should be aware of when the factors of adoption can contribute to family difficulties and dysfunction / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

Parents' perceptions of their child's behavior may differ for mothers and fathers. Differences in parental perception may also be apparent in cases of special needs adoptive families with high demands of their child for time, interventions and attention. This paper examines the differences in mother-child and father-child interactions, child behavior as reported by mothers, and fathers and changes in both after participation in an intervention program. Results suggest notable differences between mothers' and fathers' parent-child interaction scores and reports of child behavior. In addition, interaction scores and behavior reports showed some correlations. Finally, there seemed to be notable differences in the trends for the Child Behavior Checklist compared to the two attachment measures (Randolph Attachment Disorder Questionnaire and Beech Brook Attachment Disorder Checklist). Several possible explanations for mother and father differences are discussed.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Families with a transracially adopted child are confronted with normal family crises, crises due to the adoption as well as challenges specific to a transracial family. When this transracial family is a single-parent family, it could be assumed that the challenges the family faces will be even more. Consequently, the need developed to investigate characteristics and family patterns which contribute to family adaptation in crises in the single-parent family where a child from a different race than the parent has been adopted. The research question in this study was: “What are resilience factors in single-parent transracial families?” The strength perspective formed the basis of this study and the theories of Walsh (2003) and McCubbin and McCubbin (1996) provided the theoretical grounding. An explorative research design was used to address the research question. Data were collected by means of semistructured interviews and conventional content analysis was performed to analyse the data by using the Atlas.ti. computer program. Interviews were conducted with six white women who adopted a child or children from a different race than themselves. These women were all single parents living in the Western Cape, South Africa. At the time of the study, the ages of these transracially adopted children ranged from three to 10 years. A biographical questionnaire and an in-depth interview with each participant were used to collect the data. The results indicated that an important resilience factor in the transracially adopted family is equipping the adopted child with specific skills to cope with crises that may result due to his/her unique situation. Effective preparation of the adoptive mother before adoption, social contact and the support of the extended family were also found to be important resilience factors. Family routines, openness about the adoption and the utilisation of external resources were identified as important sources of resilience for the single-parent transracial family. The results of this study provide important information to the potential transracially adopting parent to prepare him/herself for transracial adoption. The results of this study also provide important information to everyone involved in transracial adoption (for example the social worker) in South-Africa. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Gesinne met ʼn aangenome kind van ʼn ander ras as die ouer(s) word gekonfronteer met alle normale gesinskrisisse, krisisse wat ontstaan weens die aanneming, sowel as uitdagings wat spesifiek aan ʼn transrasgesin gestel word. Indien die transrasgesin ʼn enkelouergesin is, kan daar verwag word dat verdere uitdagings aan hierdie gesin gestel sal word. Gevolglik het die vraag ontstaan watter gesinskenmerke en -patrone ʼn bydrae lewer tot gesinsaanpassing in krisissituasies in enkelouergesinne waar ʼn kind van ʼn ander ras as die ouer aangeneem is. Gevolglik was die navorsingsvraag in hierdie ondersoek: “Wat is veerkragtigheidskenmerke van enkelouer-transrasgesinne?” Die sterkteperspektief het as uitgangspunt vir hierdie studie gedien en die teorieë van Walsh (2003) en McCubbin en McCubbin (1996) is as teoretiese grondslag benut. ʼn Eksploratiewe navorsingsontwerp is gebruik om die navorsingsvraag te ondersoek. Data is deur middel van semi-gestruktureerde onderhoude ingesamel en konvensionele inhoudsontleding is gedoen om ingesamelde data met behulp van die Atlas.tirekenaarprogram te ontleed. Onderhoude is met ses wit vroue wat ʼn kind of kinders van ʼn ander ras as hulself aangeneem het, gevoer. Hierdie vroue is almal enkelouers en woonagtig in die Wes-Kaap, Suid-Afrika. Tydens die ondersoek het die ouderdomme van die transrasaangenome kinders gewissel tussen drie en 10 jaar. ʼn Biografiese vraelys en ʼn diepgaande onderhoud met elke deelnemer is gebruik om data in te samel. Daar is bevind dat ʼn belangrike veerkragtigheidsfaktor in die transrasaangenome gesin is om die transrasaangenome kind toe te rus met vaardighede om potensiële krisisse rakende sy/haar transrasaangenome status effektief te hanteer. Die effektiewe voorbereiding van die moeder voor aanneming, sosiale kontak en die ondersteuning van die uitgebreide familie is ook as belangrike veerkragtigheidsfaktore in die transrasgesin geïdentifiseer. Spesifieke gesinspatrone, openlikheid oor die aanneming en die benutting van eksterne hulpbronne help ook die transrasgesin om krisissituasies effektief te hanteer. Hierdie inligting is ʼn belangrike hulpbron vir potensiële aanneemouers ten einde hulle effektief voor te berei vir die aanneming van ʼn kind van ʼn ander ras as hulself. Die resultate van hierdie studie verskaf ook belangrike inligting aan die ondersteuningspartye (byvoorbeeld die maatskaplike werker) wat betrokke is by transrasaanneming in Suid-Afrika.

Older adopted children and their families often express high need for support for attachment and trauma related concerns. Post-adoption mental health intervention focused on enhancing the parent-child relationship among adoptive parents and adoptees is essential for fostering placement permanency among these families. This single group pilot study explored the effect of Child-Parent Relationship Therapy (CPRT) for adoptive parents of preadolescents who reported attachment related concerns, stress in the parent-child relationship, and child behavior problems. Participants were 11 adoptive parents ages 25 to 64 (55% male; 91% couples; 100% married; 56% European American, 27% Asian, 9% Hispanic, and 9% Black American) with adoptees between the ages of 8 to 14 (56% male; 56% Hispanic, 33% European American, and 11% Black American). All child participants were adopted out of foster care. Data was collected at baseline, pretest, midtest, and posttest. Results from non-parametric Friedman test of differences across 4 points of measure indicated that CPRT demonstrated statistically significant improvement for the 3 outcome variables: parental empathy, child behavior, and parent child relationship stress. Specifically, results indicated that prior to receiving CPRT (baseline to pretest), parents demonstrated no change or worsening in functioning across all variables, whereas during the intervention phase findings showed a large treatment effect for parental empathy, a medium effect for parenting stress, and a small effect for child behavior problems. Findings from this pilot study support CPRT as a promising mental health intervention for adoptive parents and preadolescent children. Clinical implications and recommendations for working with adoptive parents of preadolescents are explored within the context of these findings.

The purpose of this study was to look at the factors that lead to disruption in the adoption of special needs children. Families that adopt special needs children may or may not be aware that they need post adoption services and may be reluctant to ask for them even when they are experiencing difficulty.