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Effectiveness of an intervention program focusing on the adoption of abused or neglected children: An outcome study

abstract

Background. This research project was instigated by a request from case workers of the adoption service of the Centre jeunesse de Montréal - Institut universitaire (CJM-IU). In Montreal, Canada, a foster-to-adopt program called "mixed bank adoption", inaugurated in 1988, places children who are considered at a high risk of abandonment in foster families wishing to adopt them. As this program has been in operation for 20 years now, case workers would like to know the outcome of children who were among the first cohorts adopted through the program and who are now in adolescence or early adulthood. Generally speaking, there is very little data in the literature on the outcome of adolescents and young adults who were adopted in childhood, and in the province of Quebec, Canada, no data has yet been collected on the situation of these young people.

The study's purpose is the critical examination of the outcome data collected from young people who were adopted in childhood and from their adoptive parents, with a view to improving adoption practices.

Purpose. Existing research data does not give us a clear picture of the outcome of young people who were adopted in childhood. According to the results of a meta-analysis carried out by Wierzbicki (1993), adopted people appear to be significantly less well adjusted than non-adopted people, especially in adolescence. Specifically, they seem to present more externalized problems and learning difficulties. Miller and his colleagues (2000) also found that adopted adolescents are at a greater risk of developing learning, psychological, physical, or relational problems than their non-adopted peers, and are more likely to develop multiple problems. On the other hand, studies by Borders, Black and Pasley (1998) and by Burrow, Tubman and Finley (2004) show that there are no or few significant differences in adjustment between adopted adolescents and adolescents who grew up in their birth families. Furthermore, according to Sharma, McGue and Benson (1998), some adopted adolescents not coming from the clinical population seem to be better adjusted than the general population in certain areas of psychological functioning.

It should be noted that none of these studies make a distinction within the group of adopted adolescents regarding the type of adoption (e.g., private adoption or the adoption of a child from foster care). Yet this difference in the adoption trajectory can influence the outcome of the adopted child in adolescence or young adulthood. For example, there is evidence that the older the child is at the time of adoption, the greater is the risk that he or she will present adjustment difficulties in adolescence (Sharma et al., 1998).

This research project has a double objective: 1) to describe the present personal, family, and social situation of young people who were adopted in childhood through the mixed bank adoption program, and 2) to establish a relation between the situation of these young people when they were adopted and their present situation.

Method. To achieve these objectives, we have used a quantitative method. In a first stage, we analyzed the files of 79 young people adopted through the mixed bank adoption program in Montreal, Canada, who are now 15 years of age or more. The analysis grid was elaborated for the purposes of this study. Once this analysis was done, we contacted the young people and their parents to ask them to participate in telephone interviews. Of the 79 young people, 25 could not be found because they had moved. Among the 54 contacted families, almost 30 parents agreed to participate in the interviews, as did approximately ten young people. They answered questions concerning school, family relationships, the social and dating relationships of the young person, his or her physical and psychological health, the degree of parental satisfaction with the adoption, the maintaining of contact with the young person's family of origin, and the family's needs regarding post-adoption services. The interview grids were based on questionnaires used in the Longitudinal Study on Child Development in Quebec (ELDEQ) and on interview grids developed by other researchers in the field of adoption (Barth and Brooks, 2001).

Results. Preliminary results show that while almost half (48%) of these children were placed for adoption before the age of 2, a majority have known adverse preadoption living conditions: exposure to parental drug abuse or mental health problems, neglect, abandonment, foster placement disruptions, etc. It is therefore not surprising that adoptive parents identify on average 2,7 difficulties in these children as they grow up: learning disabilities, ADHD, anxiety, attachment, and behavioural problems, etc. Almost 60% of parents report having specific needs in terms of services and support, some of which have not yet been met. Nevertheless, over 95% of parents consider their adopted child as a legitimate member of their family, and 75% say that if they had to repeat the experience, they would definitely adopt the same child all over again.

Key references

Barth, R. P., & Brooks, D. (2001). Outcomes for drug-exposed children eight years post-adoption. In R. Barth, D. Brodzinsky, & M. Freundlich, (Eds.). Adoption and prenatal drug exposure: The research, policy and practice challenges. (pp. 23-58). Washington, DC, Child Welfare League of America.

Borders, L., Black, L. K., & Pasley, B. (1998). Are adopted children and their parents at greater risk for negative outcomes? Family Relations: Interdisciplinary Journal of Applied Family Studies, 47(3), 237-241.

Burrow, A. L., Tubman, J. G., & Finley, G. E. (2004). Adolescent adjustment in a nationally collected sample: Identifying group differences by adoption status, adoption subtype, developmental stage and gender. Journal of Adolescence, 27(3), 267-282.

Miller, B. C., Fan, X., Christensen, M., Grotevant, H. D., & van Dulmen, M. (2000). Comparisons of adopted and nonadopted adolescents in a large, nationally representative sample. Child Development, 71(5), 1458-1473.

Sharma, A. R., McGue, M. K., & Benson, P. L. (1998). The psychological adjustment of United States adopted adolescents and their nonadopted siblings. Child Development, 69(3), 791-802.

Wierzbicki, M. (1993). Psychological adjustment of adoptees: A meta-analysis. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 22(4), 447-454.

Contacts: Geneviève Pagé, School of Social Work, University of Montreal, C.P.6128, succ. Centre-ville, Montreal (Quebec), H3C 3J7, Canada, genevieve.page@umontreal.ca,  Phone 1 (514) 343-5111 ext. 5004.

 

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