Adopted persons face special challenges in the development of identity, as aspects of their histories may be unknown, making it difficult to construct a coherent narrative linking past, present, and future. Extensive literature on adjustment outcomes for adopted persons indicates an elevated risk for adjustment problems. In this study, a low-risk sample of adopted youth is involved to examine, longitudinally, connections between adoptive identity and adjustment. Participants included 145 adopted youth who participated in Waves 2 (W2: adolescence: mean age = 15.7) and 3 (W3: emerging adulthood: mean age = 25.0) of a longitudinal study with a nationwide sample. Children were placed with same-race adoptive families (over 95% White) as infants through domestic private adoption agencies in the U.S. Internalizing and externalizing behaviors were assessed by the Youth Self Report (W2) and the Adult Self Report (W3). Adoptive identity was assessed by ratings of six dimensions coded from interviews which, using cluster analysis, revealed four adoptive identity subgroups: Unexamined, Limited, Unsettled, and Integrated. Factorial ANCOVA examined mean differences in W3 internalizing problems across identity clusters while controlling for W2 internalizing. The main effect for adoptive identity cluster was significant: F(3, 840.72) = 3.724, p = 0.011. Adopted adolescents in the Unsettled group had significantly higher levels of internalizing problems in emerging adulthood than persons in the Unexamined and Limited categories. A similar ANCOVA for W3 externalizing behavior was not significant. Identity profiles high in negative affect may be at particular risk of increased levels of internalizing problems.

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

Challenges in adoptive parenting continue to emerge as adoption policies and practices evolve. We review three areas of research in adoptive parenting that reflect contemporary shifts in adoption. First, we highlight recent findings concerning openness in adoption contact arrangements, or contact between a child's families of birth and rearing. Second, we examine research regarding racial and cultural socialization in transracial and international adoptions. Finally, we review investigations of parenting experiences of lesbian and gay adoptive parents. Overall, parenting processes (e.g., supportive vs. problematic family interaction) are better predictors of child adjustment than are group differences (e.g., open vs. closed adoptions; adoption by heterosexual vs. same-sex parents). The distinctive needs of adopted children call for preparation of adoption-competent mental health, casework, education, and health care professionals.

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