Thesis (M.A.)--Denver Seminary, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-68).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2006. / Advisor: Scott D. Ryan, Florida State University, College of Social Work. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 20, 2006). Document formatted into pages; contains x,117 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

No abstract available / Social Work / M. Diac. (Play Therapy)

Although there has been an abundance of research on attachment, few studies have researched the treatment of attachment difficulties or have used qualitative methods. This study explores how older adoptive/foster children with attachment difficulties form attachments with their adoptive/foster parents. The method of inquiry is fictional stories. I show how children in the context of new relationships with healthy attachment figures who do not abandon or hurt them, modify their inferred internal constructions of attachment figures. This study has four parts: In the first part, I introduce the subject of attachment and the research method of fiction. In the second part, I discuss how I came to choose fiction as the method of inquiry. I explore the matter of the ethics of doing research with children, including the difficulty of gaining informed consent and the inherent dangers of a dual relationship of counsellor-researcher. I deconstruct the authority of the Human Research Ethics Committee and explore the relationship of fiction to truth in terms of the assumptions that there is no one true set of facts, but rather multiple constructed realities or “fictions”. In part 3, I present 5 fictional stories, featuring composites of various children with attachment difficulties I have worked with as a psychotherapist. They are all children who have been able to overcome many internal barriers to attach to their parents. There is a first person account of an 11 year old adoptive child who spent his infancy in a Romanian orphanage; a radio play of a 5 year old black child who spent part of his infancy in an orphanage in Haiti; a didactic-descriptive account of a foster parent as attachment figure with 4 hard-to-reach youth; a short story of a 15 year old adopted teenager who rejects her adoptive parents and later, returns to them; and a fairy tale depicting a lonely, distancing 8 year old girl who connected with her rejecting mother. Interspersed throughout these stories are my own poetry and prose that offer other perspectives on the topic of attachment. Part 4 is the discussion and interpretation of the underlying issues raised by the text, presented in the multivocal style of a T.V. show. Topics include the adoptive/foster child's torturous ambivalence toward the attachment figure/parent; a period of rejection of the parent; the child's fear and pain associated with his/her own unfulfilled longing; and the child's re-enactment of the trauma. The implications for Child Welfare practice, training of child care workers and counsellors are discussed. The relevancy of these children's inner conflicts regarding attachment to our own struggles with love individually and as a society is mentioned. / Graduate

The purpose of this study is to set up criteria for judging the mechanical features and content of sixth-grade readers and to determine whether or not the fourteen sixth-grade readers of this study fit these criteria.

Adolescents' perceptions and behaviors about romantic heterosexual relationships and sexual intercourse were compared among adolescents living with adoptive, bio logical, and stepparent s. Data come from The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). In 1995, over 20,000 adolescents living throughout the United States completed a 90-minute in-home interview that asked numerous questions about romantic relationships and sex ual behaviors. Add Health used a multi-stage cluster design to collect a random sample representative of adolescents attending U.S. schools. Results showed that several demographic characteristics (gender, age, race/ethnicity, parent's education, and number of parents in the household) were associated with adolescents' perceptions and behaviors regarding romantic relationships and sexual intercourse. Descriptive mean comparisons not controlling for any demographic characteristics showed more similarities than differences between adopted and nonadopted adolescents' heterosexual relationship formation and sexual behaviors. A second set of descriptive mean comparisons, controlling for the influences of gender and number of parents in the home, showed more differences than similarities between adopted and nonadopted adolescents living in single-parent families. Adopted females reported many more experiences of rape and/or incest than non adopted females living in two-parent and single-parent families. Multivariate regression analyses controlling for five demographic characteristics found more similarities than differences between adopted and nonadopted adolescents. Most J ifferences that were f0und were small in magnitude. Adopted males reported more ictealism when asked to describe their ideal romantic relationships and more sexual activity when asked to describe their actual romantic relationships than nonadopted males. Adopted females were nearly three-and-a-half times more likely than biological females, and nearly two-and-a-halftimes more likely than stepfamily females to report forced sexual intercourse. Adopted females also reported more negative perceptions about the consequences associated with sexual intercourse than nonadopted females. Findings about mediating concepts theorized to be the link between adopted adolescents' experiences and resultant outcomes were inconclusive. Findings overall showed that adopted and nonadopted adolescents' heterosexual relationship format ion and sexual behaviors were more similar than different. Differences that were found were most frequent among single-parent families and most substantial between adopted and nonadopted females' reports of forced sexual intercourse.

No description available.

No description available.

This dissertation examines a unique class of immigrants: foreign orphans adopted by American families. Those children accounted for 18,000 adoptions in 1984 and 1985, or 20 percent of non-relative adoptions in the United States. This rapidly increasing class of immigrants is subject to Federal regulation of immigration and to State regulation of adoption. Visa petitions for foreign orphans, filed by adopting American citizens, are the only immigration petitions for permanent residence that are subject to a State veto. Regulation of intercountry adoption in the United States exposes adopting citizen parents to significant variations in requirements, costs, time, etc., and even in the ultimate issue of Federal approval of their immigration petition - all based on the State in which they reside. This dissertation will make a case for changing the U.S. Code to eliminate the interjurisdictional confusion in which 50 systems of orphan immigration take the place of a unitary Federal system of immigration. The dissertation uses Supreme Court opinions with a more traditional policy analysis to show that the current system conflicts with fundamental constitutional values of individual rights and federalism. Conversely, the advocated change is shown to be on solid constitutional ground. The dissertation does not argue that the current system is "unconstitutional," but that the system fosters inequity and interjurisdictional confusion which Congress can and should correct. The dissertation examines the immigration and adoption elements involved, provides new data on American and intercountry adoption, and reviews American and foreign procedures. This establishes that intercountry adoption is a major alternative in American family building, that the system is safe, the children are healthy and that the system is closely regulated by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, the State Department, and, in foreign countries, by national ministries, juvenile courts and other institutions. Problems often associated with intercountry adoption are shown to be based on misinformation and a lack of familiarity with the extent of Federal and foreign regulation. Conversely, the State role is shown to be duplicative and based on less than compelling constitutional grounds. The dissertation challenges the notion that State jurisdiction over family relations justifies a State role in intercountry adoption and shows that some State policies on foreign adoption are based on unrealistic assumptions about States' administrative and technical capacities. Similarly, the dissertation shows that mandating a role for American adoption agencies in intercountry adoption (as some States now require) is inappropriate, and that a pre-emptive State role does not add constructively to the regulatory system. The State role adds to delays and costs incurred by citizens, with no additional public benefit. / Ph. D.

Family functioning has been an important part of adolescent self-image formation, according to many family therapy theorists. The aspects of family functioning that are the most positive in influencing self-image formation have not been specifically diagnosed, particularly as they apply to adoptive and foster families. The present research tied together family adaptability, cohesion, and communication from the Circumplex Model with self-image and analyzed the effect these aspects of family functioning had on a subjective measure of self-image as reported by the adolescent. The sense of family satisfaction that the adolescent had was also measured, and it was compared with the self-image of the adolescent as was the number of previous foster care placements for those adolescents who had been in foster care prior to adoption or who were presently in foster care. Fifty-five adolescents (12 adoptees, 18 in foster care, and 25 living with their biological families) were administered the Offer Self-Image Questionnaire, FACES III and the Parent-Adolescent Communication Scale. Hypotheses included: (a) adolescents across the three family types who were rated as extreme or mid-range on the cohesion and adaptability aspects of the Circumplex Model would have lower self-image scores than those who were rated as balanced; (b) adolescents who achieved a higher family satisfaction score (distance from the center of the Circumplex Model) would have a higher self-image score than those with a lower family satisfaction score; (c) adolescents who report higher levels of mother and father communication will have higher self-image scores than those with lower levels of communication; (d) adolescents with two or fewer foster care placements would have higher self-image scores than those with three or more placements. Statistical significance was found when the mother communication was divided into high and low categories and compared in an analysis of variance across the three family groupings. Perceived family cohesion was also found to be statistically significant in an analysis of variance across the three family groupings, and the interaction of family type by family cohesion (balanced, mid-range, or extrane) across the groupings was also statistically significant. The other variables related to family functioning did not prove to be statistically significant. / Ph. D.