An increasing number of American children grow up in “complex families” –- families in which adults other than or in addition to the child’s biological parents are strongly involved in the child’s life. This is becoming more and more frequent in adoption, as evidenced in the rise in open adoptions, kinship adoptions, adoptions by same-sex couples, and so on.
In order to explore these issues, the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Rudd Adoption Research Program will host this one-day conference on “New Worlds of Adoption: Growing Up in Complex Families” . The focus will be on new perspectives on adoption and will be valuable for professionals and students in the human services fields, social science researchers, and community members.
Highlights* a symposium featuring research updates on domestic infant adoptions, domestic adoptions from foster care, and international adoptions, considering the issues of complex families within each * a plenary address – by Dr. Femmie Juffer, Chair of Adoption Studies at Leiden University, Netherlands, who will discuss the video-feedback intervention program for new adoptive parents * a dialogue between researchers and practitioners, focusing on what they can learn from and contribute to each other’s work with regard to complex adoptive families.
The "New Worlds of Adoption: Growing Up in Complex Families" conference is sponsored by the Rudd Adoption Research Program, Center for Research on Families, Department of Psychology, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
All participants are welcome to bring handouts and print materials about their programs for display on tables.
Conference Chair: Dr. Harold Grotevant, Rudd Family Foundation Endowed Chair in the Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts Amherst. Contact: hgroteva@psych.umass.edu.
To register, visit our website at www.umass.edu/family.
Limited enrollment. Continuing education credits offered.
For more information about the logistics for attending New Worlds of Adoption conference contact: Janet Barstow; jbarstow@psych.umass.edu or call 413-545-3905.