PRIDE preservice training is a widely-used method of resource parent preparation, yet a program that has been the focus of very little research. This thesis project was carried out in two studies designed to examine the process of training, investigate selected outcomes of the training, and explore the transfer of training into practice. The first study involved 174 prospective resource parents. Investigation of the process of preservice training determined that participant engagement and participant-perceived fidelity, the combination of which was conceptualized as participant-perceived training quality, were high. In terms of outcomes, significant large gains from pre- to posttraining were observed in knowledge of the PRIDE competencies taught by the training. However, no differences were found in resource parent attitudes (erroneous beliefs or motivation to adopt) from pre- to posttraining. Higher training quality was a significant predictor of both greater knowledge gains and higher participant satisfaction. No differences between prospective foster parents and adoptive parents emerged in terms of participant dropout, knowledge gain, participant satisfaction, or attitudes about resource parenting. The second study was a follow-up with 11 foster, adoptive, and kinship parents from study one who had begun parenting a child in care. Interviews with these resource parents focused on the transfer of training of the PRIDE competencies and requested feedback about the training. Participants’ ratings of their transfer of training were high, while the researchers’ ratings fell in the mid-range. Overall, participants’ comments about PRIDE were positive. Participants highlighted how useful they found personal accounts of resource parents’ experiences during training and that child welfare workers played a key role in the implementation of training. The methodological contributions of this project include the development of three measures – a knowledge of PRIDE competencies questionnaire, a measure of participant-perceived quality, and a transfer of training rating scale – that can be used both in future research and in practice. In addition, this project supplied the first evidence of meaningful links between the process, outcomes, and transfer of PRIDE training, all of which were positive. The project provided essential foundational research which future studies of PRIDE should take into account.

This randomized controlled study is a preliminary investigation on the effects of Child-Parent Relationship Therapy (CPRT) with 61 adoptive parents. The participants in this study identified themselves as the following: 54 European American, 3 Black American, 3 Hispanic/Latino, and 1 individual who chose not to indicate ethnicity. The study included 23 couples and 15 individual mothers. The CPRT is a structured, time limited approach that trains caregivers to be an active participant as a therapeutic change agent in their child's life. Results from a two (group) by two (measures) split plot ANOVA indicated that adoptive parents who participated in 10 weeks of CPRT reported statistically significant decreases in child behavior problems and parent child-relationship stress. Statistically significant increases in parent empathy were also reported by raters blinded to the study. CPRT demonstrated a medium to large treatment effect on reducing children's behavior problems and parent-child relationship stress. In addition, CPRT demonstrated a large treatment effect on increasing parental empathy. The results of the study provide preliminary support for CPRT as a responsive intervention for adoptive parents and their children.

The study explored the narratives of three adoptive couples. The participants were selected using criterion based convenience and snowball sampling. The adoptive couples’ data was captured through written narratives and/or individual or joint semi-structured interviews. The data was then analysed by means of thematic analysis conducted from the perspective of second order cybernetics. The results note the participants’ experiences of their infertility threatened their functioning as a couple. However, this threat to the couples’ functioning was limited by the adoptions through two means. First, the adoptions limited the couples’ communication about their infertility. Second, the adoptions allowed the couples to continue functioning as a couple dedicated to the goal of becoming parents. Differences between the participant couples’ experiences surrounded their interactions with social workers; their selection of support structures; their interaction with external systems; as well as their anxiety towards the individuation of the adopted child. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

The purpose of this study was to critically examine differences in levels of anxiety, locus of control and stress between adoptive and biological parents of adolescents.

95% of adoption in the United States are open adoptions (Siegel & Smith, 2012). Past research has focused on the satisfaction of the adoptive parents, birth mother and adoptee in open adoption (Colaner & Scharp, 2016). However, there is a gap in research considering communication within the open adoption relationship (Grotevant, 2009). This qualitative phenomenological study sought to understand the experiences of birth mothers and adoptive parents in open adoption relationships as well as determine what is helpful and/or harmful within this relationship. The researchers conducted 20 semi-structured interviews with birth mothers and adoptive parents. Through open coding, key findings included a commonality of strong emotions and a consistent emphasis on the adoptee, as well as the benefit of healthy communication, boundaries and a relationship pre-placement. Based on the findings and limitations of this study recommendations were made for professionals, birth mothers, adoptive parents and future research.

The aim of this thesis is to try to understand the experiences of Swedish-born adoptees during the process of searching for and meeting their biological family. The subjects have been recruited from the Organisation of Adult Adoptees and Foster Children (AFO) and some other sources. The group consists of 20 adult Swedish-born adoptees, ten women and ten men.   Data have been collected through questionnaires with both open-ended and closed questions regarding their childhood and through interviews with structured questions and follow-up questions concerning the search process. The elaboration of data bas followed the search process and highlighted common features, which have brought about certain themes. The analysis of the descriptions has been made according to some existential key concepts in order to deepen the understanding of the search process. Thus, some broadly human existential dilemmas have emerged.  The results indicate a heterogeneous group of subjects. One salient feature is that the search process has been activated in critical situations when lack of knowledge about identity and heredity has been experienced. Another distinct result is the need to get physical likeness confirmed when meeting biological relatives. Such an experience has met a deficiency. Yet another distinct result is the need of contact, no matter the quality, with biological relatives so as to experience closeness built on biological bonds. There has been a will to establish lasting relationships in order to experience identity and continuity. Furthermore, many have experienced during the search process that getting a biological family has added a new dimension to their lives and contributed to personal healing. The adoptees' search for their origin can be seen as a process where broadly human existential dilemmas are particularly prominent.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Text of thesis restricted indefinitely for privacy issues. Contact the Center for Digital Scholarship: digschol@iupui.edu.

Situated within the historiography of transnational child adoption, this dissertation explores the history of transnational child adoption from Vietnam by Americans in the Vietnam War. This story of Vietnamese adoption begins with comparing and contrasting representations of American and Vietnamese parenthood during the War. While American servicemen and women were highly praised for their humanitarianism in Vietnam and portrayed as good mothers and fathers to Vietnamese children, Vietnamese women were depicted as prostitutes, bar girls, and potential enemies in American public memory. This dissertation argues that the sexualized representation of Vietnamese women and the focus on American humanitarianism provided justifications for the transnational adoption of Vietnamese children but concealed the violence of the War that led to the displacement of Vietnamese children in the very beginning. It also shows how racial and religious relations in the U.S. complicated the picture of Vietnamese adoption. African American civil rights movement at home motivated black social workers to fight for the rights of black families to adopt black children domestically and transnationally. Meanwhile, American adoptive parents were subject to the scrutiny of Catholic orphanage directors in Vietnam and American social workers who tried to uphold religious matching in adoption. Finally, this dissertation ends with exploring controversies around Operation Babylift, a US government-sponsored evacuation of Vietnamese “orphans” to the US. Labeled as a humanitarian operation, the Babylift invoked criticism over its morality as more than 130 children were killed by an airplane crash and hundreds of children ended up being illegally brought to the US for adoption.

For the past 60 years, American citizens have turned to international adoption as a way to build their families. Unfortunately, international adoptees often spend the first months or years of their young lives in conditions of poverty and/or institutionalized care. Additionally, current U.S. immigration laws dictate that the children receive only a cursory health screening before arrival. As a result, many of the children adopted by Americans arrive to the United States with significant physical, emotional, behavioral, and developmental health problems. Twelve mothers who had adopted children internationally were interviewed for this study. Their stories of obtaining health care for their newly adopted children were shared in descriptive narratives. The themes that emerged from the data analysis were seeing healthy children despite the challenges, struggling to help the children, needing help, missing lost pieces, being different, and wanting more from providers. The overall essence derived from the mothers' experiences was that seeking health care for their newly adopted children was one of hope to achieve wellness for their children and normalcy for their families within the context of loss and a desire for more support. These findings have significant implications for the health care providers who care for them. / by Natalie L. Murphy. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2010. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2010. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

<p> </p><p>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.</p><p> </p>