Becoming an adoptive parent is not always easy. There are positive and negative factors affecting the parent’s experience. The aim of this study is to examine being an adoptive parent to an internationally adopted child based on association, parenthood and ethnic belonging. Frame of interpretation consists of attachment and separations, parenthood and family and ethnic origin and belonging. In order to fulfil the purpose of the study qualitative interviews were made. The selection consisted of six adoptive families that were separately interviewed, one occasion each. The result indicated that some families did not experience any specific difficulties in their parenting whereas other families did. The experiences differed between those who had adopted an older child and those who had adopted a younger child. Association was considered a long and time consuming process. The parents did not consider it to be anything special about being and adoptive parent but they mentioned that the child at the homecoming displayed symptoms from having gone through an adoption. The reaction from the surroundings had not affected the families to any extent worth mentioning but they still expressed that the child’s appearance was important as they wished the child to be similar looking. The conclusion is therefore that it is something special about being an adoptive parent.

published_or_final_version / Social Work and Social Administration / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Despite calls for increased Adoption Communication Openness (ACO) within the adoptive family, research indicates that families still struggle to accomplish the recommended elements and levels of openness. What could be holding families back from this key process? Three focus groups comprised of 17 adoptive parents of early adolescents (aged 10-14) who were age 0-2 at the time of placement were thematically coded. This inductive analysis revealed the complexity rooted in being —sometimes successfully and sometimes not—communicatively open. Four key themes emerged painting a vivid and rich picture of: a) the breadth and depth of this experience; b) the work entailed; c) the emotionality of it; and d) the grief and loss embedded in it. These results strengthen the understanding of the lived-experience of the adoptive parent thus magnifying the call for not only further research into what drives ACO in the family, but also consistent and supportive pre- and post-adoption services and clinical work.

This study investigated the communication experiences of adoptive parents of children transracially adopted from Vietnam. Though adoption has been extensively studied in communication research, transracial adoptions involving children from Vietnam has not. Thus, this study examined adoptive parent communication experiences using dialectic theory and relational dialectics. By examining adoptive parents’ communication with their adopted child and others, we can determine tensions that occur in different communication experiences. Data were collected through eight qualitative in-depth interviews conducted with adoptive parents of children from Vietnam. Openness with both strangers and the adopted child(ren) and preservation of key aspects of the adopted children’s original culture emerged as themes in adoptive parent communication. Theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.

Studien undersöker och analyserar vilket stöd svenska adoptionsorganisationer erbjuder adoptivföräldrar som adopterar barn utan respektive med funktionsnedsättning samt analyserar vilken betydelse stödet kan ha utifrån ett psykologiskt perspektiv. Adoption sker via auktoriserade adoptionsorganisationer som styrs av lagar och konventioner för att se till barnets bästa i adoptionsprocessen. Utifrån att det finns ett behov av mer forskning samt utveckling inom adoptions området för att kunna öka förståelsen för adoptivföräldrar som adopterar barn med funktionsnedsättning. Resultatet visade att stödet är likvärdigt för adoptivbarn med respektive utan funktionsnedsättning vilket från tidigare forskning visar på en stor brist som har en inverkan på adoptivföräldern och adoptivbarnet anknytning och utveckling. / This study aims to investigate and analyze the support that swedish adoption agencies offer adoptive parents who adopt children with and without disabilities, and analyzes the importange of this support from a psychological perspective. Adoption takes place through authorized adoption organizations that are governed by laws and conventions to ensure the best interests of the child in the adoption process. Given the need for more research and development within the field of adoption to increase understanding of adoptive parents who adopt children with disabilities. The reault of the study showed that the support is equal for adopted children with and without disabilities, which, according to previous research, indicates a significant deficiency that impacts the attachment and development of both adoptive parents and adopted children.

This study was done to examine prospective adoptive parents' perceptions of one particular group of special needs children waiting for adoption: those children with developmental disabilities. The results will give social workers information that will help provide training and informational meetings to prosepctive parents in regard to the child's age and developmental disabilities.

Adoptive parents need to be able to reflect on the interaction with the child, both from the perspective of their own relational experience with the child and from the perspective of the previous experience of the child. This essay explores five adoptive parent´s thoughts and feelings about their children’s background. It also looks into how they think that the children’s background influences their way of expressing their needs and how this makes the parents feel. Data has been collected through semi-structured interviews which have been analyzed using thematic analysis. The thoughts and feelings around the children’s background mainly concerns how the children were taken care of prior to the adoption and the birth parents. The parents expressed feelings of sadness and sorrow regarding how the children were taken care of prior to the adoption. Thinking of how it could have been for the children gave rise to strong emotions. The parents expressed sympathy and sorrow but also rivalry, envy and anger towards the birth parents. They describe different behaviors’ and expressions that the children have and how they think that these may be related to the experiences the children had prior to the adoption. The parents describe what the children’s behaviors and expressions arouse within themselves. They tell about strong somatic and dissociative reactions, feelings of guilt, uncertainty and insufficiency. The parents also describe how the interaction with their children reminds them of painful experiences from their own childhood. The accounts show the importance of the parents´ ability to mentalise and how they think about needs that the children don´t express.

Reactive attachment disorder (RAD) is characterised by severely underdeveloped or absent attachment between a child and a caregiver. Adopted children who have experienced adverse early experiences prior to adoption may have lacked opportunities to form selective attachment relationships and, in rare cases, may have a diagnosis of reactive attachment disorder. The needs of adoptive families rearing children with special needs, such as children with a RAD diagnosis, are unique and it is crucial to understand the experiences of the families in order to increase the understanding of how to provide support and adequate services and interventions that respond to the needs of the families. Previous research focusing on adoptive parents’ experiences rearing children with a RAD diagnosis is scarce. Therefore, this systematic literature review aimed to explore their experiences. After a comprehensive literature search, seven articles that addressed the study aim and met the predefined inclusion criteria were included. A thematic synthesis was carried out to combine the results of the included articles. The findings suggest that adoptive families rearing children with a RAD diagnosis experience a wide range of challenges in their everyday lives, such as a lack of social network support and adequate support, services and interventions from professionals and service providers. Some facilitative factors, such as adoptive parents’ willingness to stay committed to their children, were found. Further research is needed to find out effective interventions to address the complex challenges adoptive families and their children with a RAD diagnosis experience. Study limitations and methodological considerations are discussed.

<p>In order to study internationally adopted delinquents, internationally adopted controls, delinquent controls and an additional group of healthy non-adopted, non-delinquent controls, the following tests were used: WISC/WAIS, TOL, WCST, a questionnaire, I think I am, ISSI, an attachment test, KSP, and SCL-90. In the register study, data were obtained from the registers of The National Board of Health and Welfare and Statistics Sweden and multivariate analyses were performed using logistic regression models. Odds ratios (OR) for different forms of out-of-home care placements were calculated.</p><p>It was found that the adopted delinquents had a significantly lower full scale IQ (WISC/WAIS) and significantly lower results on several measurements in the WISC /WAIS compared to the adopted controls. In addition, both groups of adoptees scored low in the WISC/WAIS subscale arithmetics when compared to the population mean. The adopted delinquents clearly had disruptive and infectious relations to their parents which was demonstrated in I think I am, ISSI, the attachment test and the questionnaire. The adopted controls demonstrated good relations to adoptive parents. When personality and self-perception were measured and analyzed in a two-way ANOVA, the results clearly pointed to ”delinquency” as the explaining factor to the variance of the results as opposed to ”adoption”. </p><p>Finally, the regression analyses of the register data demonstrated an OR of 3.0 (after adjustments for age and sex) for placements of intercountry adoptees in residental care from age 10 and an OR of 5.1 in model 2 (after adjustments for socio-demographic background variables). More over, higher child age at adoption, origin from Latin America, single parent adoption and maternal age above 35 at birth of the child were identified as significant predictors of out-of-home care from age 10.</p>

In order to study internationally adopted delinquents, internationally adopted controls, delinquent controls and an additional group of healthy non-adopted, non-delinquent controls, the following tests were used: WISC/WAIS, TOL, WCST, a questionnaire, I think I am, ISSI, an attachment test, KSP, and SCL-90. In the register study, data were obtained from the registers of The National Board of Health and Welfare and Statistics Sweden and multivariate analyses were performed using logistic regression models. Odds ratios (OR) for different forms of out-of-home care placements were calculated. It was found that the adopted delinquents had a significantly lower full scale IQ (WISC/WAIS) and significantly lower results on several measurements in the WISC /WAIS compared to the adopted controls. In addition, both groups of adoptees scored low in the WISC/WAIS subscale arithmetics when compared to the population mean. The adopted delinquents clearly had disruptive and infectious relations to their parents which was demonstrated in I think I am, ISSI, the attachment test and the questionnaire. The adopted controls demonstrated good relations to adoptive parents. When personality and self-perception were measured and analyzed in a two-way ANOVA, the results clearly pointed to ”delinquency” as the explaining factor to the variance of the results as opposed to ”adoption”. Finally, the regression analyses of the register data demonstrated an OR of 3.0 (after adjustments for age and sex) for placements of intercountry adoptees in residental care from age 10 and an OR of 5.1 in model 2 (after adjustments for socio-demographic background variables). More over, higher child age at adoption, origin from Latin America, single parent adoption and maternal age above 35 at birth of the child were identified as significant predictors of out-of-home care from age 10.