Start Date

13-5-2016 8:00 AM

Description

Background: Researchers and organizations collect vast amounts of data about the characteristics of adoptive families, children who are adopted, the reasons for adoption, and the many other factors and circumstances of adoption. Unfortunately, however, there is a scarcity of national, regularly collected data about the total number of adoptions (public, intercountry, and other), and there are no official statistics for the total number of adoptions in the United States. Information on total U.S. adoptions is needed by policymakers, government agencies, court personnel, social workers, adoption-related organizations, advocacy groups, and others to help guide adoption practice and policy.

Method: No single agency is charged with compiling this information, and agencies that do collect adoption-related data do so for their own purposes and therefore count adoptions differently (e.g., by court cases filed, birth certificates modified, adoptions completed by public agencies). This study gathered data from State courts, State departments of social services, State bureaus of vital records, the U.S. Department of State, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Data were retrieved through both readily available sources, such as the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS), and through data requests and direct contact with agencies or jurisdictions. The author also considered State statutes regarding the recognition of intercountry adoption when determining how to aggregate data in each State.

Results: This study provides data on the number of children adopted in each of the 50 States, plus Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico, for 2008–2012. It also provides data from 2001 and 2005, which were included in two previous iterations of this study, to serve as a way to show trends beyond 5 years. The study highlights adoption rates per 100,000 adults, data on the composition of all adoptions in the United States (public, intercountry, and other), and adoption trends from 2001 to 2012. The results of this study will be published as a Child Welfare Information Gateway publication titled Trends in U.S. Adoptions: 2008—12. The publication has been approved by the HHS Children's Bureau and will likely be available by the end of 2015.

Poster: The poster will present selected data and trends from the study at both the national and State levels through both graphics and text. It will also include a discussion of the complexity of collecting these data, assess possible reasons for the trends, and provide examples of how these data may be useful to adoption professionals and others. The author presented data from a previous version of this study at the 2014 Rudd conference."

DOI

https://doi.org/10.7275/R5DB802N

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Psychology Commons

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May 13th, 8:00 AM

Trends in U.S. Adoptions: 2008-2012

Background: Researchers and organizations collect vast amounts of data about the characteristics of adoptive families, children who are adopted, the reasons for adoption, and the many other factors and circumstances of adoption. Unfortunately, however, there is a scarcity of national, regularly collected data about the total number of adoptions (public, intercountry, and other), and there are no official statistics for the total number of adoptions in the United States. Information on total U.S. adoptions is needed by policymakers, government agencies, court personnel, social workers, adoption-related organizations, advocacy groups, and others to help guide adoption practice and policy.

Method: No single agency is charged with compiling this information, and agencies that do collect adoption-related data do so for their own purposes and therefore count adoptions differently (e.g., by court cases filed, birth certificates modified, adoptions completed by public agencies). This study gathered data from State courts, State departments of social services, State bureaus of vital records, the U.S. Department of State, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Data were retrieved through both readily available sources, such as the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS), and through data requests and direct contact with agencies or jurisdictions. The author also considered State statutes regarding the recognition of intercountry adoption when determining how to aggregate data in each State.

Results: This study provides data on the number of children adopted in each of the 50 States, plus Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico, for 2008–2012. It also provides data from 2001 and 2005, which were included in two previous iterations of this study, to serve as a way to show trends beyond 5 years. The study highlights adoption rates per 100,000 adults, data on the composition of all adoptions in the United States (public, intercountry, and other), and adoption trends from 2001 to 2012. The results of this study will be published as a Child Welfare Information Gateway publication titled Trends in U.S. Adoptions: 2008—12. The publication has been approved by the HHS Children's Bureau and will likely be available by the end of 2015.

Poster: The poster will present selected data and trends from the study at both the national and State levels through both graphics and text. It will also include a discussion of the complexity of collecting these data, assess possible reasons for the trends, and provide examples of how these data may be useful to adoption professionals and others. The author presented data from a previous version of this study at the 2014 Rudd conference."