A Content Analysis of Adoption Articles in Counseling Journals: A 30-Year Review

Abstract

This rigorous content analysis offers a systematic review of adoption research in counseling from 1988 to 2017. A total of 45 (N ¼ 45) articles on adoption across 13 counseling journals, 20 of which were published in The Family Journal, were analyzed. Results of the study revealed patterns in methodological orientations, target group, content areas, and journal and publication trends. Despite an overall increase in publications on adoption 1988-2017, this content analysis manifested a lack of empirical research on adoption within the context of counseling. Themes related to adoption and counseling practice were identified. Implications for family counselors/clinicians and research were discussed.

Attachment, Parental Meta-Emotion, and Emotion Regulation in Adoptive Mother–Child Dyads

“…This study has contributed to the limited adoption research in counseling (cf., Liu, Jacoby, Jany, & Li, 2019) by highlighting the effectiveness of EC parenting in helping an adopted child’s ability to emotionally regulate. Thus, family counselors can consider targeting interventions that enhance adoptive parents’ EC behaviors.…”

Social justice content in counseling journals: Comparison of publication rates

“…There are no other such studies in the counseling literature. Prior topic‐specific reviews include online teaching (Li & Su, 2021), adoption (Liu et al., 2019), social class and socioeconomic status (Clark et al., 2018; Cook et al., 2020), professional identity development (Dollarhide et al., 2023; Gibson et al., 2023), and Black American issues (Woo et al., 2022). All these studies included strong suggestions for future professional practice for the topic they examined.…”

“…Other studies have examined topics across counseling journals, including online teaching (Li & Su, 2021), adoption (Liu et al., 2019), social class and socioeconomic status (Clark et al., 2018; Cook et al., 2020), and professional identity development (Dollarhide et al., 2023; Gibson et al., 2023). Similarly, Woo et al (2022) examined topics and themes related to Black Americans in ACA journals over 24 years, documenting journal and year, methodologies, and topics.…”

A 50‐year content analysis on Black males' experiences in counseling

“…The percentage wise agreement among coders was acceptable (0.812). Scholars have recommended that IRR be at least 0.8 for validity measures (Liu et al., 2019; McKibben et al., 2020). We chose Krippendorff's Alpha because our data were nominal, and reliability metrics ranged from 0.78 to 0.875.…”

“…In addition, it has been shown to be an effective research design in counseling and counselor education research. Regarding its applicability to our profession, content analysis has been utilized in counseling related research to examine trends of publication with a particular group of clients (Liu et al., 2019), a specialty area of counseling focus (Zyromski et al., 2020), counseling specializations (Webber et al., 2017), and counselor education and supervision practices (Barrio‐Minton et al., 2014; Kemer et al., 2022).…”