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.

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.

Lesbian, Gay, and Heterosexual Adoptive Parents' Attitudes Towards Racial Socialization Practices.

We tested the validity and measurement invariance of the Transracial Adoptive Parenting scale (TAPS) across sexual orientation with a nationwide sample of adoptive parents. Our study sample consisted of 737 heterosexual, 102 lesbian, and 64 gay adoptive parents from the Modern Adoptive Families (MAF) study, a cross-sectional survey. We conducted reliability analyses, as well as exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses for the 29-item TAPs. We then tested for measurement invariance based on sexual orientation. Findings show the TAPS is a reliable scale with a two-factor model measuring racial socialization and managing bias related to racial socialization practices. However, there was measurement invariance based on parent sexual orientation. Our study informs practitioners that the TAPS measure is a useful tool for assessment and intervention that can be used with sexual minority transracial adoptive parents. However, cautions against comparing TAPs scores across parental sexual orientation.

Substance use and suicidal ideation among child welfare involved adolescents: A longitudinal examination.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to investigate the longitudinal predictors of alcohol use, marijuana use, and suicidal ideation among maltreated adolescents. METHODS: Longitudinal data from this study come from three waves of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Wellbeing II (NSCAW II). Participants included 1050 adolescents (Mage = 14.13) who were subjects of child abuse or neglect investigations. Items from the Health Risk Behavior Questionnaire were used to measure alcohol and marijuana use. Suicidal ideation was measured using an item from the Childhood Depression Inventory. Data on deviant peer affiliation, caregiver health, maltreatment type, age, race, and gender were also collected. RESULTS: Marijuana use, suicidal ideation, caregiver drug abuse, deviant peer affiliation, age, and race were predictive of alcohol use. Alcohol use, deviant peer affiliation, age, and time were predictive of marijuana use. Alcohol use, deviant peer affiliation, age, and gender predicted suicidal ideation. CONCLUSIONS: Longitudinal evidence indicated that individual, family, and peer factors played an important role in predicting alcohol use, marijuana use, and suicidal ideation among child welfare involved adolescents. In addition, this study provides evidence of a potentially reciprocal relationship between alcohol use and suicidal ideation among this population. Intervention efforts for reducing the public health problems of substance use and suicide among child welfare involved adolescents should focus on the importance of peers in influencing thoughts and behaviors, as well as the functional relationship between alcohol use and suicidal ideation.

Trajectories of birth family contact in domestic adoptions.

Emotional distance regulation theory (Broderick, 1993; Grotevant, 2009) guided this examination of the changes in family structure and process in adoptive kinship networks experiencing different arrangements of contact between birth and adoptive family members. Group-based trajectory modeling was used to reveal four trajectories of postadoption contact experienced between adoptive and birth family members in adoptive kinship networks of same-race, domestic infant adoptions. Data were drawn from the Minnesota Texas Adoption Research Project, a study of 190 adoptive families and 169 birth mothers followed across four longitudinal waves (middle childhood, adolescence, emerging adulthood, young adulthood). Three aspects of the birth family adoptive family relationship measured at four times were used to create the groups: frequency of contact between the adopted person and birth mother, satisfaction of the adopted person with the openness arrangements, and number of adoptive and birth family members involved in the contact. Four trajectory groups emerged: no contact (41.6% of sample), stopped contact (13.7%), limited contact (26.3%), and extended contact (18.4%). Group membership was validated by coders who matched interview transcripts with group descriptions at levels significantly above chance. Knowledge of trajectories will assist professionals providing postadoption services. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Many Faces of Openness in Adoption: Perspectives of Adopted Adolescents and Their Parents.

Parents and adolescents (mean age, 15.7 years) from 177 adoptive families participating in the second wave of the Minnesota/Texas Adoption Research Project were interviewed about their post-adoption contact arrangements. The sample included families with no contact, stopped contact, contact without meetings, and contact with face-to-face meetings between the adolescent and birth mother. Openness arrangements were dynamic, and different openness arrangements were associated with different experiences and feelings. Adoptive families with contact reported having higher levels of satisfaction about their openness arrangements, experiencing more positive feelings about the birth mother, and possessing more factual and personal knowledge about the birth mother than did families without contact. Adolescents and adoptive mothers in the contact with meetings group reported the greatest satisfaction with their openness arrangements; those with no contact or stopped contact reported the least satisfaction with their arrangements. Participants having no contact were more likely to want the intensity of contact to increase in the future rather than stay the same. Many participants already having contact wanted it to increase in the future. Fewer than 1 percent of all participants wanted to see the intensity of contact decrease.

Openness arrangements and psychological adjustment in adolescent adoptees.

This is the 1st national study to examine whether the level of contact between adoptive and birth family members is associated with the behavioral and emotional adjustment of adolescents adopted in infancy (n = 92). Adoptive family members were interviewed twice, 8 years apart, to determine the level of contact taking place throughout adoptees' childhood and adolescence. The Child Behavior Checklist (T. M. Achenbach, 1991a) and Youth Self-Report (T. M. Achenbach, 1991b) were administered in adolescence. Adoptive parents' reports indicate no significant associations between openness and adolescent adjustment. Adoptees experiencing long-term direct contact reported significantly lower levels of externalizing than adoptees without contact. Adoption policies and legal procedures will best serve families by facilitating voluntary openness agreements that accommodate openness decisions on a case-by-case basis.

Adolescents' feelings about openness in adoption: implications for adoption agencies.

Adoption research commonly uses parents' reports of satisfaction when examining openness in adoption arrangements. This qualitative study aimed to fill a gap in the adoption research by using adolescents' voices to gain a better understanding of their adoption experiences. Adopted adolescents (n = 152) were interviewed concerning their satisfaction with the openness in their adoption arrangements with their birthmothers. Results and implications from this study may affect how adoption agencies work with adopted adolescents and their families, and may influence a broader understanding of the recent trend toward open adoption arrangements.

Contact Between Adoptive and Birth Families: Perspectives from the Minnesota Texas Adoption Research Project.

A growing number of adoptive families have contact with their children's birth relatives. The Minnesota Texas Adoption Research Project is examining longitudinally the consequences of variations in contact arrangements for birth mothers, adoptive parents, and adopted children in domestic infant adoptions, and is studying the dynamics of relationships within these family systems. Individuals who had contact were more satisfied with their arrangements than those who did not have contact. Satisfaction with contact predicted more optimal adjustment among adopted adolescents and emerging adults. Adoption-related communication predicted identity development among adopted adolescents and emerging adults. Birth mothers who were more satisfied with their contact arrangements, regardless of level of contact, had less unresolved grief 12 to 20 years after placement. Adoptive and birth relatives who engage in contact need flexibility, strong interpersonal skills, and commitment to the relationship. These skills can be learned, and they can be supported by others, through informal, psychoeducational, and therapeutic means.

Postplacement relationships between birth mothers and their romantic partners.

Using a mixed-methods approach, the understudied population of birth mothers who placed their infants for adoption 12-20 years ago was explored in the context of their romantic relationships. In a semistructured interview, 104 birth mothers answered detailed questions about their romantic relationships and adoption-related experiences. All birth mothers had disclosed the adoption placement to their romantic partners, and most had done so early because they wanted to be truthful about their past. On average, the birth mothers were satisfied with their romantic relationships and almost half did not believe that the adoption had affected it. Regarding contact in the adoption, a majority of the birth mothers' romantic partners (63.5%) were not directly involved in contact with the adoptive family or adopted youth. Implications about how adoption is perceived and processed within intimate relationships are discussed.

Processes linked to contact changes in adoptive kinship networks.

The purpose of this study was to reveal underlying processes in adoptive kinship networks that experienced increases or decreases in levels of openness during the child's adolescent years. Intensive case study analyses were conducted for 8 adoptive kinship networks (each including an adoptive mother, adoptive father, adopted adolescent, and birth mother), half of whom had experienced an increase in openness from indirect (mediated) to direct (fully disclosed) contact and half of whom had ceased indirect contact between Waves 1 and 2 of a longitudinal study. Adoptive mothers tended to be more involved in contact with the birth mother than were adoptive fathers or adopted adolescents. Members of adoptive kinship networks in which a decrease in level of contact took place had incongruent perspectives about who initiated the stop in contact and why the stop took place. Birth mothers were less satisfied with their degree of contact than were adoptive parents. Adults' satisfaction with contact was related to feelings of control over type and amount of interactions and permeability of family boundaries. In all adoptive kinship networks, responsibility for contact had shifted toward the adopted adolescent regardless of whether the adolescent was aware of this change in responsibility.