Publication Series Copyright (c) 2013 University of Massachusetts - Amherst All rights reserved. http://scholarworks.umass.edu/rudd_publications Recent documents in Publication Series en-us Fri, 25 Jan 2013 23:30:44 PST 3600 The International Adoption Project: population-based surveillance of Minnesota parents who adopted children internationally. http://scholarworks.umass.edu/rudd_publications/5 http://scholarworks.umass.edu/rudd_publications/5 Mon, 25 Apr 2011 11:15:25 PDT

OBJECTIVES:

To conduct the first population-based surveillance in the United States of parents who adopted children from countries outside of the United States.

METHODS:

A 556-item survey was mailed to 2,977 parents who finalized an international adoption in Minnesota between January 1990 and December 1998; 1,834 (62%) parents returned a survey.

RESULTS:

Eighty-eight percent of the parents reported transracial adoptions (97% of the parents were white); 57% of the adopted children were Asian; 60% were female; and on average, the children were 18 months-old at the time of placement. Only 15% of the parents reported household annual incomes less than $50,000 and 71% reported they had college educations. Sixty-one percent traveled to their child's country of birth prior to the adoption. Almost three-quarters involved their children in experiences related to their birth countries and 98% would recommend international adoption. Three-quarters of the parents believe that parental leave was an issue for them as they adopted.

CONCLUSIONS:

This is the first population-based survey of U.S. parents who have adopted internationally. The adoptive parents were socioeconomically different than birth parents in Minnesota and their families are most likely to be transracial. Because international adoption has become more prevalent, it is important to understand the strengths and needs of families that are created through this unique form of migration.

]]> Hellerstedt, WL et al. Many Faces of Openness in Adoption: Perspectives of Adopted Adolescents and Their Parents http://scholarworks.umass.edu/rudd_publications/4 http://scholarworks.umass.edu/rudd_publications/4 Mon, 25 Apr 2011 11:02:52 PDT 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.

]]> Grotevant, HD et al. Adoption Quarterly Cultural Socialization in Families with Internationally Adopted Children http://scholarworks.umass.edu/rudd_publications/3 http://scholarworks.umass.edu/rudd_publications/3 Mon, 11 Apr 2011 12:09:07 PDT Cultural socialization attitudes, beliefs, and parenting behaviors were examined in families with internationally adopted children. The authors hypothesized that parents with lower color-blind racial attitudes would be more likely to engage in enculturation and racialization parenting behaviors because they hold stronger beliefs in the value and importance of cultural socialization. Using data from the Minnesota International Adoption Project, the results support this mediation model of cultural socialization. Individual variations in cultural socialization also are discussed in terms of child development and shifting adoption attitudes and practices.

]]> Lee, Richard M. et al.