Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Facilitating Peer Support Between Foster Carers In The Uk, Samantha Mcdermid

Rudd Adoption Research Program Annual Conferences

Peer support between foster carers has been found to facilitate emotional and practical support for foster carers, information sharing and opportunities to reflect on and improve practice, along with reducing foster carers stress, reducing disruptions in placements, and improvements to the retention of foster carers. This presentation will bring together the findings of three research studies to explore three innovative approaches to facilitate peer support between foster carers and the impact that those approaches have carers and the children and young people they care for. The issues associated with implementing such models within fostering services in the UK and recommendations …

Part Of The Family: Achieving Permanence In Long-Term Family Foster Care, Mary Beek, Joyce Maguire Pavao

Rudd Adoption Research Program Annual Conferences

This presentation will explore research on long-term foster care as a permanence option. It will focus on two contentious practice issues. First there is the extent to which long-term foster children become fully part of the family as intended in the concept of permanence. Secondly there is the question of the role that foster carers in long-term placements need to play as both skilled professionals and committed parents. This presentation will bring together key research findings with reflections on policy, practice and the support needs of long-term foster care placements.

Sexual Minority And Heterosexual Parents Adopting Through The Child Welfare System: Challenges And Surprises During The Transition To Parenthood And Beyond, Abbie Goldberg, April Moyer, David Brodzinsky

Rudd Adoption Research Program Annual Conferences

This session will address some of the unexpected challenges and surprises encountered by heterosexual, lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals and couples who adopt through the child welfare system. Data will be presented regarding (a) the challenges that foster-to-adopt parents encounter post-placement, including: legal insecurity in their parental role, disorganization within social service systems, inadequate support services, and complex relationships with birth parents; (b) unmet expectations that foster-to-adopt parents often encounter with regard to the types of children that are placed in their home (e.g., in terms of age, race, gender, and special needs); and (c) the experiences of parents that …

Getting Practice Right: Using The Strengths And Limits Of Research Findings To "Bridge The Gap" Between Practice And Research, Elsbeth Neil, Sally Popper, Karen Zilberstein

Rudd Adoption Research Program Annual Conferences

This session explores how gaps between research and practice can be bridged. In the first part of the session, Karen Zilberstein and Sally Popper will identify areas in which research has provided useful guides for practice and areas in which research and standardized interventions do not yet completely address the experiences and needs of individual children and families. The second contribution will be from Beth Neil who will outline the “Contact after Adoption Change Project” from the UK. This project brings together an adoption researcher with experienced adoption professionals with the aim of coproducing online resources to help make research-informed, …

Finding Adoptive Families For Children In Care: Perspectives From The Us And England, Kathy Ledesma, Cherilyn Dance

Rudd Adoption Research Program Annual Conferences

In this session, which is intended as an opportunity to reflect on adoption policy and practice, Kathy and Cherilyn will consider the way in which adoption has become a permanence option for some groups of children in care in the US and in England. They will explore briefly the profiles of children adopted from care and touch on similarities and differences in legislation, policy, process and practice in the two countries. The main focus of the session will be on current issues and tensions associated with finding families for children in a timely way. Topics to be discussed will include …

Improving College Graduation Outcomes For Foster Youth: The Wily Network, Judi Alperin King, Katherine Castañeda Macdonald

Rudd Adoption Research Program Annual Conferences

The vision of the Wily Network is to improve college graduations outcomes for youth with foster care experience at four-year residential colleges. Our presentation will offer a brief history of higher education support programs for college students with foster care experience. Using examples from our work we will outline the critical need for developing robust programs to enhance each scholar’s college experience and help them to develop a life long network of peers and supports. Finally, we will highlight the importance of creating performance metrics in order to continually evaluate the networks efficacy.

Dan Hughes' Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy For Children With Trauma And Attachment Histories: An Introduction For Caretakers And Therapists, Robert Spottswood

Rudd Adoption Research Program Annual Conferences

Children who learned from early experience to not trust adults for help or care can present troubling emotional challenges to loving caretakers. This presentation will explain the experiential logic behind that mistrust, as well as Dan Hughes’ relationship-focused approach to re-engaging such children. Attendees will hear the theory behind Hughes’ model, practice an attitude of PACE (Playful, Accepting, Curious and Empathic), and view short clips of a variety of DDP therapy sessions (subtitled).

Mapping Needs, Costs And Outcomes: The English Adoption Journey, Lisa Holmes, Samantha Mcdermid, John Simmonds

Rudd Adoption Research Program Annual Conferences

This presentation will outline the adoption pathways in England and will highlight how a systematic approach to analyzing and costing pathways can, and has, informed strategic planning. Furthermore the presentation will highlight the importance of costing child welfare services using the child as the unit of analysis, rather than focusing purely on fiscal data. Examples will be provided of how this approach facilitates an exploration of children’s needs and circumstances, how they impact on children’s pathways through the child welfare system and the outcomes that are achieved.

The Secure Base Model: Promoting Attachment And Resilience, Mary Beek

Rudd Adoption Research Program Annual Conferences

This session introduces and explains a framework for providing focused, therapeutic caregiving to children in foster care and adoption: The Secure Base model, developed by Professor Gillian Schofield and Dr. Mary Beek at the University of East Anglia, UK. The Secure Base model is based in theories of attachment and resilience and drawn from research and practice in foster care and adoption. The presenter will briefly describe the model and its applications and give examples of the ways that foster carers and adopters have successfully used it as a tool to shape their caregiving and support their children’s progress and …

Fostering Futures: A Successful Community Volunteer Team Model For Supporting Foster Families, William Mclaughlin, Darlene Ward

Rudd Adoption Research Program Annual Conferences

Fostering Futures NY (FFNY) is an innovative program that is operating in three counties in upstate New York that is identifying previously untapped resources from within the community. The program is essentially a foster parent support model that uses no government resources. FFNY builds partnerships between teams of volunteers from the community and individual foster families. The goal of a team is simple - to provide practical help to foster parents in their task of providing a safe, stable and nurturing home for the the abused and neglected children in their care. The early results are positive. Foster parents are …

Creating Trauma-Sensitive Schools, Anne Eisner

Rudd Adoption Research Program Annual Conferences

This presentation will share the work of the Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative, a collaboration of Massachusetts Advocates for Children and Harvard Law School. Based on their publications, Helping Traumatized Children Learn and Creating and Advocating for Trauma-Sensitive Schools, the workshop will summarize trauma’s impact on learning, behavior and relationships at school, and briefly describe the Attributes and Framework that can guide schools in creating the school-wide infrastructure needed to provide a safe and supportive, trauma-sensitive learning environment that is responsive, not only to the needs of students who have been exposed to adverse childhood experiences, but to the needs …

2016 Conference Presenter Biographies

Rudd Adoption Research Program Annual Conferences

No abstract provided.

Conference Program 2016

Rudd Adoption Research Program Annual Conferences

New Worlds of Adoption & Foster Care: Thriving on the Frontline

Privacy And Confidentiality In Adoption Research: Perspectives From The Minnesota/Texas Adoption Research Project, Albert Lo, Harold Grotevant, Ruth Mcroy

Rudd Adoption Research Program Annual Conferences

There is currently a focus in adoption research on the processes that influence adoption-related adjustment (Palacios & Brodzinsky, 2011). To examine these processes, it is necessary to study the adoption network as a whole. This may include adoptive families and birth families. Research with all types of families introduces a number of ethical considerations (Margolin et al., 2005). There may be unique privacy and confidentiality concerns when working with families in the adoption network. The purpose of the current study is to outline privacy and confidentiality issues that arise when working with the adoption network. we also provide examples of …

The Role Of Developmental Comprehension In Understanding Microaggressions In Transracially-Adopted Children, Anthony Debenedetto, Ellen E. Pinderhughes

Rudd Adoption Research Program Annual Conferences

Transracially adopted children often experience challenges in the development of identity. Researchers have found that people of minority race often go through a period of questioning ethnic identity (Phinney, 1990); however, little research has been conducted in similar development among adopted children. Growing up as a minority both in ethnic and adoptive status, transracial adoptees may face many obstacles in developing a healthy identity. Specifically, children may experience developmental setback frequently in the form of microaggressions. Microaggressions, regardless of intent, attribute stereotypical qualities to the recipients and invalidate individual differences between group members. Internalization of these messages at an early …

Birthmothers As Grandmothers: Examining Forms Of Post Adoption Contact & Relationship Quality With Placed Children & Grandchildren, Addie Wyman Battalen, Christina Wigglesworth, Ruth Mcroy, Hal Grotevant

Rudd Adoption Research Program Annual Conferences

No abstract provided.

Predictive Associations Between Prenatal And Postnatal Risk Factors And Developmental And Temperamental Outcomes Among Infants In Foster Care, Irene Tung, Allison Brandt, Audra Langley, Jill Waterman

Rudd Adoption Research Program Annual Conferences

Infants detained for maltreatment present with a number of prenatal and perinatal risk factors, including prenatal exposure to substances, prematurity, low birth weight, birth complications, and prolonged hospital stay. These factors pose significant risk for a broad range of infant outcomes critically linked to later functioning, including cognitive, language, motor, socio-emotional, and temperamental development (Del Giudice, 2012; Singer et al., 2008). However, many infants exposed to prenatal risk also develop normatively, highlighting the need to better understand how the postnatal environment influences individual differences in response to prenatal risk. Importantly, prior to adoptive placement, infants placed in foster care often …

Unique Features Of Identity Development In Transnational Adoptions, Minori Haga Stefon, Erin Hiley Sharp

Rudd Adoption Research Program Annual Conferences

Identity formation has been defined as the process by which an individual

develops a coherent self-definition of one’s uniqueness (Erikson, 1968). Arnett (2000;

2014) proposed the concept of emerging adulthood (between ages 18 and 29) as the

developmental stage of later adolescence at which an individual is both cognitively and

psychologically best suited for identity formation. Emerging adults who had been

adopted transnationally as children often struggle to articulate their ethnic identity as a

dimension of their broader individual identity (Schwartz et al., 2013) because they have

characteristics that do not fit into those of the majority (Adams & Marshall, …

Out Of The Mouths Of Babes: Developmental Differences In Young Children's Microaggressions And Relations With Parent-Child Discussions, Xian Zhang, Alexandria Cinney, Anthony Debenedetto, Cecelia Nealon-Shapiro, Hae Rham Shin, Emily Zhang, Ellen E. Pinderhughes

Rudd Adoption Research Program Annual Conferences

Throughout their development, transracial adoptees (TRAs) must navigate visible differences from their adoptive family, which frequently prompt public comment (Wegar, 2000). Even in the absence of family, TRAs experience questions and comments from peers about their difference (Vashchenko et al, 2012). Whether from strangers or peers, well-meaning or intentional, these comments may reflect microaggressions—daily verbal, behavioral or environmental messages, intentional or unintentional that communicate hostile or negative slights and insults (Sue et al, 2007). With ongoing exposure to racial or adoption microaggressions (Baden, 2016), young children may internalize messages that they have heard, and repeat the themes without full awareness …

Adoption-Related Topic Avoidance: The Role Of Structure And Communication Processes In Adoptive Families, Shane A. Kavanaugh, Diana Lang

Rudd Adoption Research Program Annual Conferences

The purpose of this study is to examine communication processes within adoptive families using data collected from the perspective of a sample of adult adoptee college students (N = 183) from a midwestern university. Specifically, the relationships between age at adoption and adoption disclosure, levels of openness, and amount of adoption-related topic avoidance were analyzed. Structural equation modeling concluded that age at adoption and age at adoption disclosure were strongly related and highly predictive, and that as each increased, levels of adoption-related topic avoidance between adoptees and their adoptive parents also increased. Furthermore, level of openness was found to mediate …

Contextual Diversity And Microaggressions In The Lives Of Transracially-Adopted Children From China, Emily Zhang, Xian Zhang, Ellen E. Pinderhughes

Rudd Adoption Research Program Annual Conferences

A large proportion of transracially-adopted (TRA) children experience challenges related to their ethnic and racial identity alongside their adoptive status (Baden, 2015). TRA adoptees grow up in a different country and family from their culture of origin, which may be a barrier to opportunities to learn about their race. Therefore, it is critical to study factors that may contribute to a TRA child’s understanding of race and adoption. Microaggressions are particularly concerning in young children because these subtle messages may influence a child’s understanding of their race at an age when they are unable to fully understand social categorization and …

Ethnic Racial Socialization Among Inracial International Adoptive Placements, Jessica A.K. Matthews, Ellen E. Pinderhughes

Rudd Adoption Research Program Annual Conferences

Parents of international adoptees are encouraged to provide ethnic socialization for their children. Retrospective evidence from adult adoptees suggests this is important for identity development, particularly among transracially adopted persons. However little is known about ethnic identity development among children placed internationally in in-racial placements. It is unknown whether a focus on ethnic socialization by the adoptive family might further distinguish an adopted child as different, or relate to an adoptee’s increased perception of adoption visibility. The current study examined the ethnic identity development of 31 adoptees ages 11-18 in in-racial international adoptive placements. Adoption visibility, perceived self-competence, and affiliation …

Trends In U.S. Adoptions: 2008-2012, Matthew Shuman

Rudd Adoption Research Program Annual Conferences

Background: Researchers and organizations collect vast amounts of data about the characteristics of adoptive families, children who are adopted, the reasons for adoption, and the many other factors and circumstances of adoption. Unfortunately, however, there is a scarcity of national, regularly collected data about the total number of adoptions (public, intercountry, and other), and there are no official statistics for the total number of adoptions in the United States. Information on total U.S. adoptions is needed by policymakers, government agencies, court personnel, social workers, adoption-related organizations, advocacy groups, and others to help guide adoption practice and policy.

Method: No single …

Intraracial And Intraethnic Microagressions Experienced By Korean American Internationally And Transracially Adopted Persons, Karin J. Garber, Krystal K. Cashen

Rudd Adoption Research Program Annual Conferences

This research examined the typology of microaggressions (i.e., everyday slights and derogations) that Korean American internationally and transracially adopted individuals (ITAPs) report based on intraracial and intraethnic interpersonal exchanges. Although the microaggressions framework has been used to analyze more covert prejudicial interracial slights, it has not yet been explored from an intraracial lens. Transcripts from two separate focus groups with 4 young adult Korean American ITAPs (2 males and 2 females per group) were analyzed. Focus groups were completed using Skype. Thematic analysis was employed to discover 15 distinct subthemes organized under 6 overarching themes: (1) Cultural Scripts; (2) Relationships; …

Safe Place: A Collaborative Sensory Integration-Based Approach To Treating Trauma, Teresa A. Benson, Sarah Sawyer

Rudd Adoption Research Program Annual Conferences

SAFE PLACE is a collaborative treatment program among occupational therapists, psychotherapists, and parents for children with sensory processing disorder (SPD) and complex trauma-attachment concerns. It is both a theoretical model explicating the relationship between sensory processing, disrupted attachment and complex developmental trauma concerns in children and a specific collaborative interdisciplinary sensory integration-based trauma-informed intervention program for treating these concerns.

Many adopted/fostered children present with trauma-attachment concerns and SPD.

SAFE PLACE provides a therapeutic framework for service providers and parents which emphasizes development of body-based regulatory and adaptive functions with co-regulation and intersubjective experiences, deepening of attachment bonds and security, and …

Trajectories Of Mental Health In Children Adopted From Foster Care, Austin Blake, Jill Waterman

Rudd Adoption Research Program Annual Conferences

A wealth of research has established that adopted youth are at greater risk for impaired mental health than their non-adopted peers, given the host of early life stressors that many experience. However, the specific trajectories of risk and resilience into adulthood remain unclear. The present study examines longitudinal trajectories of mental health in 49 adolescents and young adults adopted from foster care, using data collected at six time points in childhood to predict later youth outcomes from parent-report and child-report surveys. The study investigated the contribution of two major pre-adoptive risk factors, abuse/neglect and age of adoptive placement, to childhood …

Adoption Related Curiosity In Emerging Adulthood, Gretchen Miller Wrobel, Harold D. Grotevant

Rudd Adoption Research Program Annual Conferences

Adoption-related curiosity was examined for a group of 169 emerging adults (M= 25.0 years) who were adopted as infants. The Adoption Communication Pathway model guided the research questions about formation of an information gap, which exists when there is a difference between what an adopted person knows and what he or she wants to know, and specific issues about which emerging adults were curious. Differences in these specific issues were examined across sex and contact with birth parents at adolescence. Logistic regression analyses revealed that the formation of an adoption information gap, which contains the content of curiosity, was more …