Families and Adoption

Harriet Gross, Marvin B Sussman

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9781032166957
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000526233
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

Do parents with adoptive children see themselves as similar to or different from nonadoptive parents? Is the stigma attached to adoption lessening? Does open communication about adoption contribute to the family's well-being? How successful are adoptive adults at putting their adolescent turmoil behind them? These and many other important and complex questions are addressed in Families and Adoption, an informative guidebook that shows you how adoption is both a condition and a lifelong process. Families and Adoption discusses legislation that can serve the needs of various members of the adoptive experience to deepen your understanding of the key legal issues associated with consent and openness. It also provides you with detailed coverage of changes in adoption law, open adoption research results, transracial and transethnic adoption, and the consequences of placing versus parenting for unmarried, teenage women who give birth. Graduate students, social workers, adoption professionals, members of adoptive families, and couples wishing to adopt will find there isn't a rock that Families and Adoption leaves unturned. It presents you with vital information on the following topics: the developmental stages of reunion between an adoptive child and birth parent, notions of adoption, parenthood, and kinship and how these notions are challenged after a reunion has taken place, the institution of adoption as it has existed for decades in American society, international adoption, respecting the bonds children have and helping them develop critical attachment skills, those who "accept" open-adoption and those who "embrace" it, flexible parenting styles and their positive effect on developmentally vulnerable adoptees.  A skillful blend of personal adoption experiences and research studies, Families and Adoption explores the special issues adoption presents and how all parties involved can work together to improve placement decisions, ensure that a woman is confident in her decision to relinquish her child, and help families select the most appropriate adoption arrangement. The book's main strength is that it doesn't just look at the initial considerations of adoption; it prepares you for the issues that will arise along the way.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Openness in Adoption: Experiences and Social Psychological Outcomes Among Birth Mothers
• Variants of Open Adoptions: The Early Years
• “Where Do We Go Next?” Long-Term Reunion Relationships Between and Birth Parents
• Developing Definitions of an Adoptee-Birthmother Reunion Relationship
• Adopting Romanian Children: Making Choices, Taking Risks
• Effect of Transracial/Transethnic Adoption on Children’s Racial and Ethnic Identity and Self-Esteem: A Meta-Analytic Review
• Formal Adoption of the Developmentally Vulnerable African-American Child: Ten-Year Outcomes
• Key Issues in Adoption Legislation: A Call for Research
• Bonding and Attachment in Adoption: Towards Better Understanding and Useful Definitions
• The Consequences of Placing versus Parenting Among Young Unmarried Women
• Adopted Adults: Comparisons with Persons Raised in Conventional Families
• Search and Rescue: A Belated Critique of “Growing Up Adopted”
• Index