Unsettled adoptive identity: Understanding relationship challenges in adopted adolescents' identity narratives.

Adopted adolescents create identity narratives conceptualizing their connections to their families of adoption and birth. Previous work with a sample of adoptive adolescents identified a sub-group who reported negative experiences regarding adoption as part of their navigating of adoptive identity processes (the "Unsettled" group). The current study examined interviews with adolescents in the "Unsettled" group to elucidate these negative experiences, specifically through identifying the relationship challenges linked to adoption. Participants included 30 adopted adolescents (18 females, 12 males) from a longitudinal study of adoptive families. All the adolescents (M age = 15.2 years) were domestically adopted in infancy by heterosexual couples who were the same race as the adolescents (29 White, 1 Mexican American). Thematic analysis revealed six themes reflecting adolescents' relationship challenges as related to adoption, both in terms of interpersonal interactions and how relational experiences influenced adolescents' thoughts and feelings of past, present, and future selves: (a) Negative experiences in relationships with adoptive family members, (b) Negative experiences in relationships with birth family members, (c) Difficulties in the adoptive kinship network, (d) Negative thoughts and feelings toward the self as an adopted person, (e) Negative views toward adoption as a form of building a family, and (f) Negative connections between adoption and future relationships. Multiple subthemes were also identified that built upon topics within the adoption and family systems literature, such as communication among family members, navigation of birth family contact, and adopted adolescents' perceptions of loss. Also identified were four profiles across themes. Implications for mental health providers and adoption professionals are discussed.

Profiles of Adoptee Adjustment in Young Adulthood.

The developmental stage of young adulthood, the period from one's late twenties through thirties, has grown in attention and research focus among general populations. However, little is known about the adjustment of adopted individuals during this phase. The present study sought to expand our understanding of the various patterns of adoptee adjustment in young adulthood. Latent profile analysis was used to identify profiles across eight domains of functioning spanning physical and mental health to relationships, achievement, and engagement. Three profiles were identified, demonstrating varying levels of adult functioning. Adoption related and non-adoption related variables were explored using a series of multinomial logistic regressions to determine which factors differentiated between profiles. It appears that, although some adoption related variables remain significant in young adulthood, non-adoption related variables are more strongly linked to adoptee adjustment at this developmental stage. Implications and future directions for clinical care and research are discussed.

Minding the (Information) Gap: What do Emerging Adult Adoptees Want to Know about their Birth Parents?

The formation of an adoption information gap was examined for a group of 169 emerging adults (M= 25.0 years) who were adopted as infants. Participants completed interviews and questionnaires at adolescence and emerging adulthood (late teens to 20's). The Adoption Curiosity Pathway model guided research questions about formation of an adoption information gap, which exists when there is a difference between what an adopted person knows and what he or she desires to know, regarding his or her adoption. In addition, specific issues were identified about which emerging adults were curious. Differences in these specific issues were examined across gender and openness arrangement with birth parents at emerging adulthood. The most frequently sought information was medical and health history. Logistic regression analyses revealed that the formation of an adoption information gap, which contains the specific items of curiosity, was more likely for those who were less satisfied with the amount of openness with birth parents during both adolescence and emerging adulthood. Implications for practice are presented.

Ethical Considerations in Adoption Research: Navigating Confidentiality and Privacy Across the Adoption Kinship Network.

Adoption research often includes multiple members of the adoption network, each of whom has distinctive perspectives. Participants may include adopted individuals and their siblings as well as adoptive parents, birth parents, and adoption professionals. Due to these multiple informants and the sensitivity of the topics explored in adoption research, researchers encounter several unique ethical concerns when working with populations impacted by adoption. The current paper addresses confidentiality and privacy issues that arise when conducting adoption research. Examples from a longitudinal study on openness in adoption are provided to highlight strategies that can be used to address these issues.

Does Lack of "Genetic-Relative Family Health History" Represent a Potentially Avoidable Health Disparity for Adoptees?

Many adoptees face a number of challenges relating to separation from biological parents during the adoption process, including issues concerning identity, intimacy, attachment, and trust, as well as (for older adopted children) language and other cultural challenges. One common health challenge faced by adoptees involves lack of access to genetic-relative family health history (GRFHx). Lack of GRFHx represents a disadvantage due to a reduced capacity to identify diseases and recommend appropriate screening for conditions for which the adopted person may be at increased risk. In this article, we draw out common features of traditionally understood "health disparities" in order to identify analogous features in the context of adoptees' lack of GRFHx.

Adoption: biological and social processes linked to adaptation.

Children join adoptive families through domestic adoption from the public child welfare system, infant adoption through private agencies, and international adoption. Each pathway presents distinctive developmental opportunities and challenges. Adopted children are at higher risk than the general population for problems with adaptation, especially externalizing, internalizing, and attention problems. This review moves beyond the field's emphasis on adoptee-nonadoptee differences to highlight biological and social processes that affect adaptation of adoptees across time. The experience of stress, whether prenatal, postnatal/preadoption, or during the adoption transition, can have significant impacts on the developing neuroendocrine system. These effects can contribute to problems with physical growth, brain development, and sleep, activating cascading effects on social, emotional, and cognitive development. Family processes involving contact between adoptive and birth family members, co-parenting in gay and lesbian adoptive families, and racial socialization in transracially adoptive families affect social development of adopted children into adulthood.

Participation in the Adoption Mentoring Partnership: Mentors' Experiences of Ethnic Identity.

The Adoption Mentoring Partnership (AMP) matches preadolescent adoptees with adopted college students, prioritizing matches of the same ethnic background. As part of AMP, participants actively discuss issues of ethnicity and adoption with a cohort of mentors over a period of 1 to 3 years in mentor group meetings (MGMs). This study focuses on mentors' perceptions of ethnic identity processes within the context of adoption during their participation in AMP. Thematic analysis is used to analyze two interviews from each of 12 internationally and transracially adopted mentors (8 females, 4 males; average age = 20.4 years; birth countries from Asia or Latin America). Four overarching domains emerged: personal ethnic identity exploration, communication with family members about adoption/ethnicity, social exchanges outside the family, and mentors' perceived personal meanings of ethnicity while participating in AMP. All mentors acknowledged degrees of ambivalence around ethnic identity, yet reported overwhelmingly positive feelings about participating in AMP.

New Trends and Directions in Ethnic Identity Among Internationally Transracially Adopted Persons: Summary of Special Issue.

The collective findings of the six articles in this special issue highlight the importance of ethnic-racial socialization and ethnic identity among international transracial adoptees (ITRAs). A multidimensional developmental phenomenon, ethnic identity intersects with other identities, notably adoptive identity. Family, peers, community, and host culture are important socialization contexts that engage transracial adoptees in transactional processes that promote ethnic identity development. New directions in research were identified, including developmental processes in navigating ethnic and other identities, similarities and differences in ethnic identity between ITRAs and immigrants, the effectiveness of interventions targeting ethnic identity in ITRAs, and the impact of discrimination on ethnic identity construction and the role of social and national contexts. Implications for policies and practices were discussed, such as pre- and postadoption supports for adoptees and parents that provide developmentally appropriate support for positive ethnic identity; training for professionals working with ITRAs and their families; and intercountry practices that promote connection with cultures of origin. Lessons about ITRAs and their ethnic identity in transaction with multiple social contexts enhance understanding of how all individuals navigate multiple identities.

Adoptees' contact with birth parents in emerging adulthood: the role of adoption communication and attachment to adoptive parents.

As adoptees transition to adulthood, their roles in the family may shift, providing them with opportunities to have increasing autonomy in their decisions about contact and initiating conversations about adoption. Research has often focused more on adoptees as children, yet in emerging adulthood, there are important shifts in the life roles and relationships of adoptees during which adoptive parents continue to be meaningful. This study examined associations among attachment and communication within the adoptive family during adulthood with emerging adult adoptees' experience of birth family contact (frequency of and satisfaction with birth family contact), in a sample of 167 emerging adults with varied contact with birth family (from no contact to frequent contact). Results suggest that perceptions of secure parent-child attachment relationships, as well as sensitive and open communication with adoptive parents about adoption, continue to be important for emerging adult adoptees and lead to greater satisfaction for adoptees with birth parent contact-regardless of whether adoptees actually have birth family contact. In particular, positive family communication about adoption during adulthood was predictive of satisfaction with birth parent contact. Limitations and implications are discussed.

Adoptive family contexts of adolescent and adult adjustment: Dyadic and systemic approaches.

Research has identified family dynamics within adoptive families as essential to understanding adopted individuals' adjustment. However, there has been a lack of attention to the intricacies of adoptive family context, especially dyadically and as a group. This study examines data from 177 adoptive families from the Minnesota/Texas Adoption Research Project, a longitudinal study of families who participated in domestic U.S. infant adoptions. Study participants are from the second and third collection waves, during adolescence and emerging adulthood. Participants completed interviews and questionnaires at home (Wave 2) or online (Wave 3). The present study examines family context in relation to parent-child incompatibility (match between parent expectations and child's behavior from the Parenting Stress Inventory) and how family context during adolescence (Family Assessment Device, Family Inventory of Life Events, Brief Symptom Inventory) is associated with concurrent and later adjustment (Youth and Adult Self Reports). Family context variables were hypothesized to predict parents' and their spouses' ratings of incompatibility using actor-partner interdependence models. Varied actor and partner effects of family dysfunction, parent distress, and family stressors on ratings of parent-child incompatibility were found. Using regressions, family context variables were hypothesized to have positive associations with adolescent and adult adjustment. Variables accounted for significant variance in adopted individuals' outcomes when considering symptom type (internalizing, externalizing) and age (adolescence, emerging adulthood), though many variables did not have a significant main effect. Results allow for better understanding of differential associations of family context with adjustment for adopted individuals and families. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Birth Family Contact from Childhood to Adulthood: Adjustment and Adoption Outcomes in Adopted Young Adults.

Experiences of contact between adopted persons and birth family members have implications for psychological adjustment of adopted persons. The current study utilizes four contact trajectory groups, spanning from middle childhood to young adulthood and encompassing three aspects of birth family contact, in predicting psychological adjustment and adoption-related outcomes in adopted young adults. Data come from a longitudinal study of adoptive families in which adopted persons were domestically adopted in infancy by same-race parents in the United States. Adopted young adults in the group characterized by sustained high levels of contact and satisfaction with contact over time ('Extended Contact') displayed lower levels of psychological distress and higher levels of psychological well-being than adopted persons in the group characterized by contact that increased over time but remained limited ('Limited Contact'). Generally, adopted persons within the group characterized by consistent lack of contact ('No Contact') and the group characterized by contact that was initially present but ended ('Stopped Contact') did not differ in distress and well-being from those in the 'Extended Contact' group. No group differences were found on adoption dynamics and identity, however young adults in the 'Extended Contact' group generally reported more positive relationships with their birth mothers than those in the other groups. Findings are discussed in the context of heterogeneity in contact experiences and implications for policy and practice.

Parents' adaptation from conflict: Bicultural socialization beliefs and acculturative family conflict in Chinese American families.

Many Chinese American parents desire for their children to take on both Chinese heritage and mainstream American values and behaviors, referred to as their bicultural socialization beliefs. Parents' development of such beliefs appears linked with parent-adolescent conflict concerning cultural values, yet the direction and temporal ordering of this relation is unclear. The present study aimed to resolve discrepancies in the literature through examining the bidirectional relations between Chinese American parents' bicultural socialization beliefs and the acculturative family conflict they experience with their children. Relations were examined across two developmental periods of the children: adolescence and emerging adulthood. Data came from a longitudinal study of 444 Chinese American families from the west coast of the United States. Mothers and fathers reported on their own bicultural socialization beliefs for their children. Mothers, fathers, and adolescents/emerging adults each reported on levels of acculturative family conflict within mother-adolescent and father-adolescent dyads. Higher levels of family conflict in adolescence consistently predicted greater increases in parents' desires for their children to be bicultural in emerging adulthood. Results have implications for interventions with Chinese American families and demonstrate Chinese American parents as capable of adapting and growing from challenging, culturally based interactions with their children. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Development of the Tool to Empower Parental Telling and Talking (TELL Tool): A digital decision aid intervention about children's origins from donated gametes or embryos.

Objective: This study aimed to create and develop a well-designed, theoretically driven, evidence-based, digital, decision Tool to Empower Parental Telling and Talking (TELL Tool) prototype. Methods: This developmental study used an inclusive, systematic, and iterative process to formulate a prototype TELL Tool: the first digital decision aid for parents who have children 1 to 16 years of age and used donated gametes or embryos to establish their families. Recommendations from the International Patient Decision Aids Standards Collaboration and from experts in decision aid development, digital health interventions, design thinking, and instructional design guided the process. Results: The extensive developmental process incorporated researchers, clinicians, parents, children, and other stakeholders, including donor-conceived adults. We determined the scope and target audience of the decision aid and formed a steering group. During design work, we used the decision-making process model as the guiding framework for selecting content. Parents' views and decisional needs were incorporated into the prototype through empirical research and review, appraisal, and synthesis of the literature. Clinicians' perspectives and insights were also incorporated. We used the experiential learning theory to guide the delivery of the content through a digital distribution plan. Following creation of initial content, including storyboards and scripts, an early prototype was redrafted and redesigned based on feedback from the steering group. A final TELL Tool prototype was then developed for alpha testing. Conclusions: Detailing our early developmental processes provides transparency that can benefit the donor-conceived community as well as clinicians and researchers, especially those designing digital decision aids. Future research to evaluate the efficacy of the TELL Tool is planned.

Alpha Test of the Donor Conception Tool to Empower Parental Telling and Talking.

OBJECTIVE: To conduct an alpha test of the prototype of a digital decision aid to help parents disclose donor conception to their children, the Donor Conception Tool to Empower Parental Telling and Talking (TELL Tool). DESIGN: Convergent mixed-methods design. SETTING: Virtual interviews in places convenient to the participants. PARTICIPANTS: A purposeful sample (N = 16) of nine gamete-donor and embryo-recipient parents and eight clinicians, as one parent was also a clinician. METHODS: We conducted cognitive interviews to explore participants' perceptions about the TELL Tool prototype and observe patterns of use. The International Patient Decision Aid Standards (i.e., usability, comprehensibility, and acceptability) guided the development of the qualitative interview guide and directed the qualitative analysis. We also collected data about participants' perceptions and ratings of the helpfulness of each of the prototype's webpages regarding parents' decision making about disclosure. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the helpfulness ratings before we merged the two data sets to optimize understanding. RESULTS: Participants reported that the TELL Tool was a helpful digital decision aid to help parents tell their children how they were conceived. Most (93.7%) webpage rating scores indicated that the content was very helpful or helpful. The participants identified content and technical areas that needed refinement and provided specific recommendations such as adding concise instructions (usability), tailoring adolescent language (comprehensibility), and softening verbiage (acceptability). CONCLUSION: Alpha testing guided by the International Patient Decision Aid standards was an essential step in refining and improving the TELL Tool prototype before beta testing.

Post-adoption contact, adoption communicative openness, and satisfaction with contact as predictors of externalizing behavior in adolescence and emerging adulthood.

BACKGROUND: This study examined the relation between three variables related to adoptive family relationships (post-adoption contact between adoptive and birth family members, adoption communicative openness, and satisfaction with contact) and adoptee externalizing behavior in adolescence and emerging adulthood. METHOD: The study included 190 families of infant-placed, domestic adoptees during childhood, adolescence, and emerging adulthood. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze predictors of externalizing behavior from contact (adoptive parents and adolescent reports), adoption communicative openness (adoptive mothers), and satisfaction with contact (adoptive parents and adolescent). RESULTS: Externalizing behavior showed moderate stability across childhood, adolescence, and emerging adulthood. Contact and adoption communicative openness were related to each other, but not to externalizing behaviors in adolescence or emerging adulthood. Controlling for the effect of Childhood Externalizing, adoptive families most satisfied with contact reported relative declines in adoptee externalizing behavior during adolescence compared to those in less satisfied families. Satisfaction was also indirectly associated with Emerging Adult Externalizing, through its effect on Adolescent Externalizing. CONCLUSIONS: Although contact and adoption communicative openness were highly correlated with each other, neither was related to adoptees' externalizing behavior in adolescence or emerging adulthood. Family-level satisfaction with contact was more predictive of externalizing outcomes.

Tech-Mediated and Traditional Communication Modes in Adult Adoptees' Contact With Birth Parents.

OBJECTIVE: To understand how adult adoptees use traditional and tech-mediated modes of communication in contact with birth parents. To examine associations between desire for increased use of both modes and quality of relationship. BACKGROUND: As tech-mediated modes of communication become more commonplace, it is important to understand their implications for family relationship quality. Limited research has examined the use of tech-mediated modes of communication between adult adoptees and birth parents. METHOD: Participants (M age = 31 years) were adopted as infants (N = 90). Participants reported their current and desired future use of traditional and tech-mediated communication modes and their satisfaction with contact, current closeness, desired future closeness, and psychological presence of birth parents. RESULTS: Those with current contact reported using both traditional and tech-mediated modes of communication. Desired increase of traditional modes was associated with greater psychological presence and desired future closeness with birth mothers, while both traditional and tech-mediated were associated with these outcomes for birth fathers. CONCLUSION: Adult adoptees use both traditional and tech-mediated modes of communication with their birth parents. However, these modes may play distinct roles in maintaining close relationships with birth parents. IMPLICATIONS: Family professionals should consider the unique roles traditional and tech-mediated modes of communication may play when supporting adult adoptees in contact with birth relatives.

Parents' experiences telling children conceived by gamete and embryo donation about their genetic origins.

OBJECTIVE: To gain an in-depth understanding of parents' experiences telling children conceived by gamete and embryo donation about their genetic origins. DESIGN: Qualitative, descriptive. SETTING: Families' homes. PATIENTS: Gamete or embryo donation recipient parents living in the United States and who told their children, from birth to 16 years, about their genetic origins. INTERVENTIONS: Individual semistructured (n = 12) or dyadic (n = 2) parent interviews. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Directed qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: Fourteen families that comprised 16 gamete or embryo donation recipient parents and represented 24 donor-conceived children between the ages of 4 months and 16 years participated in the study. Single parents (n = 3) and both parents in most two-parent families (n = 9) led the initial telling conversations. Parents recounted personal short stories using language that was both developmentally and medically appropriate. Multiple strategies, including children's books, were used by parents to aid them in their telling. The oldest donor-conceived children in each family were first informed of their genetic origins at birth (n = 10 families) or at 6 months (n = 1 family; "practice runs") or from 3.5 to 12 years (n = 3 families). The telling conversations took place during routine family activities that naturally brought parents and children in close proximity, usually in the home. CONCLUSIONS: Awareness of the nuances of parents' telling conversations with their children through the age of 16 years can help guide clinical counseling and the development of tools to aid parents in their telling conversations.

Relational Competence in Emerging Adult Adoptees: Conceptualizing Competence in Close Relationships.

Little research has focused on the positive adjustment of emerging adult adoptees (Palacios & Brodzinsky, 2010). Given the developmental context of emerging adulthood (Arnett, 2000), it is important to select an indicator of adjustment that reflects the associated ambiguity. The present study aims to provide empirical support for the construct of relational competence, or competence in one's closest relationship regardless of relationship type (i.e., romantic vs. nonromantic) among emerging adult adoptees. Participants included 162 adoptees who had been adopted before the age of one in the United States through private domestic adoption in to same-race families. Relational competence was measured by adapting a measure of romantic competence in emerging adulthood (Shulman, Davila, & Shachar-Shapira, 2011). Indicators of relational competence were coded from interviews in which participants discussed their self-identified closest relationship (White, Speisman, Jackson, Bartis & Costos, 1986). Confirmatory factor analyses showed that the proposed model of relational competence was a good fit to the data and was invariant across relationship type and gender. No differences in relational competence scores were found by relationship type or by gender (all p's >. 552). Relational competence was positively associated with adaptive functioning (ß = .325, p = .006) and negatively associated with internalizing (ß = -.246, p = .035) and externalizing behavior (ß = -.347, p = .003).

Adoptive Parenting Cognitions: Acknowledgement of Differences as a Predictor of Adolescents' Attachment to Parents.

OBJECTIVE: Adoptive parents' acknowledgement of differences is defined as the propensity to think that adoptive and nonadoptive families are different in important ways. Few studies have examined the implications of such cognitions for the parent-child bond. DESIGN: Structural equation modeling was utilized to examine the relation between adoptive parents' acknowledgement of differences and adolescents' later attachment to their parents in a sample of within-race domestic infant adoptions. Data from 189 adoptive families were drawn from two waves (middle childhood, adolescence) of the Minnesota/Texas Adoption Research Project, a longitudinal study of openness in adoption. RESULTS: Levels of acknowledgement of differences displayed by the adoptive mother and adoptive father during middle childhood positively predicted adopted adolescents' feelings of attachment towards the respective parent 8 years later. This relation depended on adopted adolescents' attitude toward adoption-related communication during middle childhood as well as the adoptive family's level of openness during middle childhood. CONCLUSIONS: Acknowledgement of differences in adoptive families has positive implications for the parent-child bond.