Beyond adoption status: Post-adoptive parental involvement and children’s reading and math performance from kindergarten to first grade.

Abstract

In this study, we went beyond adoption status to examine the associations between postadoption parental involvement and children's reading and math performance from kindergarten to first grade. Secondary data on a sample of adopted children and nonadopted children were drawn from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Class of 1998 to 1999 (ECLS-K). Weighted data on the children's reading performance were available for 13,900 children (181 were adopted); weighted data on the children's math performance were available for 14,128 children (184 were adopted). Descriptive data showed no group difference in reading scores at all 3 Waves but adopted children scored lower than nonadopted children in math at Wave 2 (Spring of kindergarten) and Wave 3 (Spring of first grade). However, controlling for 6 covariates, latent growth modeling showed that adoption status was unrelated to Wave 1 reading and math scores or subsequent growth rate. Rather, parents' beliefs on skills needed to succeed in kindergarten were a significant predictor of reading and math performance at Wave 1 and subsequent growth rates, and parents' educational expectation was a significant predictor of growth rate in reading and math. Our findings highlight the importance of parental involvement in adopted children's learning. (PsycINFO Database Record

Is Adoption Equally Beneficial to Different Aspects of Youth’s Behavioral Health? Findings From Comparing Adopted Chinese Youth With Non-Adopted American and Chinese Youth

“…The effects of their high family SES may manifest through parenting behaviors and parental psychological functioning such as authoritative parenting (Tan, Camras, Zhang, Deng, & Lu, 2012), positive parent–child relationship (Devenish, Hooley, & Mellor, 2017; Roubinov & Boyce, 2017), and high parental involvement and parental educational expectations (W. Johnson et al, 2007; Tan, Kim, Baggerly, Mahoney, & Rice, 2017). In addition, a high family SES allows adoptive parents to invest more heavily in their adopted children (Hamilton, Cheng, & Powell, 2007; Werum et al, 2018).…”