“You Can't Run into a Burning Building without Getting Burned Yourself”: An Ecological Systems Perspective of Parents Choosing Out-of-Home Care for an Intercountry Adopted Child

Abstract

Increasingly, intercountry adopted children have special needs similar to children adopted from foster care in the United States. Out-of-home placement may be necessary when less restrictive services have not adequately addressed an adopted child's needs. The experiences of 19 adoptive parents who chose to place their intercountry adopted child in out-of-home care due to their child's disability were explored through qualitative interviews and family ecomaps. Themes emerging from interviews relate to adoptive parent definitions of adoption and disability, challenges identifying and accessing services, and the effects of placement on their family, within an ecological systems perspective. Findings show the need for service providers to better understand the impact of an intercountry adopted child's disability and preadoption history on family adjustment, as well as to support parents through the out-of-home placement process.

Working and caring for a disabled adopted child during a pandemic

“…Measures and survey design were based on the researchers' previous study experiences with families caring for a child with disabilities and most included items have been used in national surveys before. Questions related to adoption were developed based on other studies of adoptive families parenting children with disabilities or special needs (Hill & Moore, 2015; Kim, 2017; LaBrenz et al, 2020; Vandivere & McKlindon, 2010). The survey was reviewed by two adoptive parents with expertise working with adoptive families who were not part of the study team.…”

Cadenas de vulnerabilidad en el sistema de protección a la infancia. El acogimiento familiar fallido como factor de riesgo para el truncamiento adoptivo

“…Además, como apuntan diversos estudios precedentes, este truncamiento y posterior reintegración establece una categoría diferente de menor tutelado (Kim 2017, Rolock 2015 y requiere más investigación orientada específicamente a los estresores y factores de riesgo asociados a este proceso (Dellor y Freisthler 2018, Sattler y Font 2020. Este carácter singular se acentúa cuando el perfil de menor responde al de un niño o niña que ha pasado por un proceso de adopción internacional, puesto que a los estresores anteriormente mencionados se suman las potenciales percepciones sociales derivadas de su fenotipo o país de origen.…”

“…Así, Festinger y Maza (2009) propondrán hablar de emplazamientos post-adoptivos (post-adoption placement), lo que encajaría mejor con las eventuales adopciones subsiguientes, en caso de poder llevarse a término. Otras líneas de trabajo se han centrado en los procedimientos que responden a necesidades especiales por parte del menor (Kim 2017), en trayectorias de emplazamiento o en la etnicidad como variables relevantes en estas disoluciones (Kim y otros 2019), además del papel que pueden desempeñar factores como el género, los malos tratos o la exposición al consumo de drogas (Dellor y Freisthler 2018).…”

Using Symbolic Interactionism to Model Transitions to Adoptive Parenthood

“…Their work has addressed different stages, variations from normative life-course development, and perspectives of adoption as inferior to a biological requisite (Brodzinsky, 2005;Hoksbergen & Laak;Kirk, 1988;Lavner, Waterman, & Peplau, 2014). Other topics have included the importance of communication boundaries and the influence of boundary ambiguity and ambiguous loss (Brodzinsky, 2005;Farr, Grant-Marsney, & Grotevant, 2014;Grotevant, McRoy, Wrobel, & Ayers-Lopez, 2013), as well as the reciprocal influence of family members, the interrelated nature of interactions across various social systems, and the influence of broader sociohistorical cultures (DeBerry, Scarr, & Weinberg, 1996;Kim, 2017;Liao, 2016;Schweiger & O'Brien, 2005;Verbovaya, 2016).…”