The quality of the interparental relationship is recognized as an important influence on child and adolescent psychopathology. Historically, clinically oriented research on this topic has focused on ...the impacts of parental divorce and domestic violence as primary interparental relationship influences on child outcomes, to the relative neglect of dimensional or qualitative features of the couple/interparental relationship for youth (child and adolescent) psychopathology. Recent research has highlighted that children are affected by attributes of interparental conflict, specifically how parents express and manage conflicts in their relationship, across a continuum of expressed severity and negativity – ranging from silence to violence. Furthermore, new evidence highlights that children's emotional, behavioral, social, academic outcomes, and future interpersonal relationships are adversely affected by conflict between parents/carers whether adults are living together or not (i.e. married or separated), or where children are or are not genetically related to their rearing parents (e.g. adoption). We review evidence and present an integrated theoretical model, highlighting how children are affected by interparental conflict and what this evidence base means for effective intervention and prevention program development, as well as the development of possible cost–benefit models. Additionally, we review policy implications of this research and highlight some very recent examples of UK‐based policy focusing on addressing the interparental relationship and its impact on youth psychopathology.
Read the Commentary on this article at doi: 10.1111/jcpp.12902
The primary aim of the Swedish national population registration system is to obtain data that (1) reflect the composition, relationship and identities of the Swedish population and (2) can be used as ...the basis for correct decisions and measures by government and other regulatory authorities. For this purpose, Sweden has established two population registers: (1) The Population Register, maintained by the Swedish National Tax Agency ("Folk-bokföringsregistret"); and (2) The Total Population Register (TPR) maintained by the government agency Statistics Sweden ("Registret över totalbefolkningen"). The registers contain data on life events including birth, death, name change, marital status, family relationships and migration within Sweden as well as to and from other countries. Updates are transmitted daily from the Tax Agency to the TPR. In this paper we describe the two population registers and analyse their strengths and weaknesses. Virtually 100 % of births and deaths, 95 % of immigrations and 91 % of emigrations are reported to the Population Registers within 30 days and with a higher proportion over time. The over-coverage of the TPR, which is primarily due to underreported emigration data, has been estimated at up to 0.5 % of the Swedish population. Through the personal identity number, assigned to all residents staying at least 1 year in Sweden, data from the TPR can be used for medical research purposes, including family design studies since each individual can be linked to his or her parents, siblings and offspring. The TPR also allows for identification of general population controls, participants in cohort studies, as well as calculation of follow-up time.
Abstract
The challenges of caring for children with early life adversity have been identified as contributing to feelings of compassion fatigue (CF)—an emotional disconnection resulting from repeated ...exposure to another’s trauma. Although extensive studies have focused on contributors to trauma-inducing workplace stress and well-being, research on trauma-related stress in the home, especially in adoptive parent populations, is relatively underexplored. This study aimed to understand how adoptive parents make sense of their experiences of parenting adopted children, identify core components of CF, understand parents’ perceptions of contributing factors and explore wider relational impacts. Parents were recruited from Adoption UK via email invite. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twelve parents to form a holistic picture of adoptive parents’ experiences. Data were analysed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis. Findings yielded three overarching and interrelated themes: (i) a parent not a therapist; (ii) strained connections; and (iii) support is a mirage. Findings support recent literature highlighting the reality of CF in adoptive parents and the need to develop more preventative structures and responsive systems of support adapted to the needs of adopted children but also the unique needs of their families to help prevent mental health crises across the family and adoption breakdowns.
Adoptive parents raising children who have come from challenging and traumatic family backgrounds may experience stress levels greater than biological parents. Indirect exposure to and a lack of knowledge of their adopted child’s trauma may impact their ability to parent and lead to feelings of emotional exhaustion, burnout and disconnect from the child, also known as compassion fatigue. Many studies have explored stress and well-being at work, but there are few that discuss stress within the adoptive family home and the direct impact on parent mental health. This study focuses on the views of twelve adoptive parents and their understanding of the challenges of caring for a child with a complex life history, what these challenges look like to them and the wider impact of these. Parent narratives highlighted the ongoing struggles they face and the need for better support to prevent and respond to not only the needs of the adopted child but also the needs of the entire family to help avert parent mental health crises and possible adoption breakdowns.
We explore the origins of the intergenerational association in entrepreneurship using Swedish adoption data that allow us to quantify the relative importance of prebirth and postbirth factors. We ...find that parental entrepreneurship increases the probability of children’s entrepreneurship by about 60%. For adoptees, both biological and adoptive parents make significant contributions to this association. These contributions, however, are quite different in size. Postbirth factors account for twice as much as prebirth factors in our decomposition of the intergenerational association in entrepreneurship. We investigate several candidate explanations for this large postbirth factor and present suggestive evidence in favor of role modeling.
Abstract
Objective
This study explored communication about children's origins among same‐gender parent adoptive families.
Background
Although this topic has been widely researched among ...different‐gender parent adoptive families, communication about origins among those with same‐gender parents, as well as sexual minority identity dynamics relevant to this crucial task, remain unexplored.
Method
A sample of same‐gender adoptive couples (
N
= 31) from Belgium, France, and Spain with children aged between 4 and 18 years (M
age
= 8.9 years) participated in a semistructured interview and a graphic projective test aimed at explore their feelings and communication process about their adopted child's birth family.
Results
Inductive thematic analysis yielded a continuum of three main stances conveyed by adoptive parents regarding their child's origins: (a) critical/minimization, (b) cautious/uncertainty, and (c) open/validation. The first (critical/minimization) was associated with experiences of sexual minority stigma and poorer communication about children's origins and sexual minority family‐related issues, while the second (cautious/uncertainty) was characterized by mixed feelings (i.e., at times open, at times critical) in communicating about origins and parents' sexual minority experiences. The third (open/validation) was associated with positive feelings toward adoptive and sexual minority family statuses, as well as identity integration as a lesbian or gay parent and low internalized sexual stigma.
Conclusion
Our findings underline the importance of sexual minority identity issues in relation to communication about children's origins in same‐gender parent adoptive families.
Implications
These findings have important implications for both adoption assessment and therapeutic work with same‐gender adoptive parent families.
Objectives: Using longitudinal data, this study investigated the association between parent racial colorblindness and discrimination toward children (reported by both parents and adolescents) in ...transracial, transnational adoptive families. Method: Eighty White adoptive parents with adopted Korean children (ages 5–12 years old) were surveyed in 2007 (Time 1 T1), and both parents and adolescents (ages 13–19 years old) were surveyed in 2014 (Time 2 T2). Parents completed a self-report measure of parent racial colorblindness toward their child at T1 and T2, and parents and adolescents completed a measure of discrimination experienced by adoptees at T2. Results: Parent reports of racial colorblindness toward their child were not significantly different between T1 and T2. However, parent reports of discrimination increased between time points. Further, parent and adolescent reports of discrimination were not significantly different from one another. Using hierarchical regression models, racial colorblindness among parents at T1 (when children were in middle childhood) was significantly associated with parent reports of discrimination experienced by adolescent children at T2, even when controlling for T2 racial colorblindness. This association did not hold for adolescent reports of discrimination. Conclusion: Adoptive parents’ acknowledgment of their children’s race and ethnicity appears relatively stable from childhood into adolescence, and parent racial colorblindness toward their own child can affect their ability to recognize discrimination during adolescent development, a vital period when discrimination becomes more common and salient. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)
Polygenic scores now explain approximately 10% of the variation in educational attainment. However, they capture not only genetic propensity but also information about the family environment. This is ...because of passive gene–environment correlation, whereby the correlation between offspring and parent genotypes results in an association between offspring genotypes and the rearing environment. We measured passive gene–environment correlation using information on 6,311 adoptees in the UK Biobank. Adoptees’ genotypes were less correlated with their rearing environments because they did not share genes with their adoptive parents. We found that polygenic scores were twice as predictive of years of education in nonadopted individuals compared with adoptees (R2s = .074 vs. .037, p = 8.23 × 10−24). Individuals in the lowest decile of polygenic scores for education attained significantly more education if they were adopted, possibly because of educationally supportive adoptive environments. Overall, these results suggest that genetic influences on education are mediated via the home environment.
Adoptive parents experience a great number of challenges throughout the adoption process. Hence, there is a need for thorough preparation of prospective adoptive parents prior to them receiving a ...child into their family. This study aimed to evaluate a Norwegian pre-adoption course from the view of both adoptive parents and trainers. Participants were 10 adoptive parents and six trainers. Focus groups and semi-structured SWOT interviews were used for the parents and trainers, respectively. Thematic analysis was used as a framework for analyzing the interview data. The course was described in terms of various strengths and weaknesses, concerning the course framework, content, administrative support and informants' personal experiences. Multiple suggestions for improving the course were suggested, such as updating the course material, providing trainers with regular updates and ensuring a nuanced presentation of the material. Participants also reported a need for post-adoptive services and had various suggestions for what this kind of service should be like, whether it be a continuation of the pre-adoption course, a maternity or support group, or a resource center for adoptive families. These findings are in line with previous research, showing that adoptive families need specialized support that is suited to their unique situation.
•A qualitative study to evaluate a pre-adoption training course•Study participants were adoptive parents and course trainers•Both groups reported the social aspect as one of the most useful aspects of the course•Participants viewed the competency of course trainers as highly beneficial, but described the course as outdated and overly focused on the negative aspects of adoption•Trainers were concerned about the lack of administrative support
•65% of French parents report >1 special need in their internationally adopted child.•Child SN were associated with different feelings and perceptions among parents.•Parents reported that children ...with SN more often experienced exclusion and prejudice.•Special needs (SN) may complicate stigma due to adoption or ethnic differences.
Both adoption status and ethnic differences may contribute to stigmatization and microaggressions experienced by adopted individuals and their families. Internationally adopted children have been increasingly recognized to have elevated rates of special needs (SN), especially learning disabilities, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder(ADHD), emotional-behavioral problems, and medical-physical issues. However, relatively little is known about the feelings, perceptions, and stigma experienced by families of internationally adopted children with SN.
461 French parents responded to a questionnaire (308 on-line, 153 paper) regarding their feelings and perceptions after international adoption (feelings of difference, ease of attachment, similarities to and dissimilarities from their child), as well as their views of their child’s feelings and experiences (difference, exclusion, and prejudice). Parents were asked if their children were diagnosed by professionals as having special needs, specifically: (1) medical/physical conditions, (2) ADHD, (3) learning disabilities, or (4) emotional-behavioral difficulties. Results were compared for parents of children with or without SN.
The children (57%M; 43%F) of the parent respondents were adopted from 47 countries. The children were age (mean ± SD) 3.19 ± 2.59 years old at arrival and 11.33 ± 5.03 years old at the time of the survey. 301 (65%) parents reported that their child had at least one SN: physical-medical SN (13% of children) were reported significantly less often than the other 3 categories (ADHD 39%, learning disabilities 36%, emotional-behavioral problems 40%). Overall, parents reported 652 distinct SN among these 301 children: 102/301 (34%) had a diagnosis in a single category, whereas 199/301 (66%) had diagnoses in at least two categories. SN diagnoses varied by continent of origin: Eastern European children had proportionally more ADHD, learning disabilities, and emotional-behavior problems, as well as more diagnoses per child. Compared with parents of non-SN children, parents of SN children (especially those with learning disabilities or emotional-behavioral problems) significantly more often endorsed feelings of difference, more difficulties attaching to their child, and fewer similarities to and more dissimilarities from their child. The SN parents also more often reported that their child experienced exclusion and/or prejudice. The more SN diagnosed in their children, the more likely their parents’ feelings and perceptions differed from parents of children without SN. These relationships remained significant after controlling for arrival age, current age, gender, and adoption visibility, and after adjusting for exclusion due to adopted status or country of origin.
Compared to adoptive parents of children without SN, parents of children with SN report differing patterns of perceptions and feelings. Child SN represent an additional burden for parents of internationally adopted children, and for their children’s feelings and experiences (difference, exclusion, and prejudice, as reported by the parents). These perceptions and feelings are present, even when the SN are not physically obvious. SN must be recognized as an increasingly common, complex, and added dimension to the issues of adoptive status and (often) ethnic differences faced by internationally adopted children and their parents.
Prospective adoptive parents need to develop adequate knowledge of adoptive parenthood and adoptable children before child placement. Pre-adoption preparation has been considered a predictor of ...positive outcomes both for parents and children, while unrealistic expectations towards adoptive parenthood are related to difficulties in facing the adoptive parenting process, especially those that may arise from the child’s emotional, psychological and behavioural problems. Despite the importance of prospective adoptive parents’ expectations for the positive outcomes of adoption, few studies have examined the expectations of couples awaiting adoption. This article investigates the expectations concerning adoptive parenting in a group of 60 Italian prospective adoptive parents who completed an open-ended questionnaire aimed at understanding their expectations regarding adoptable children and their wishes and fears about adoptive parenting. The thematic analysis highlighted prospective adoptive parents’ expectations of more desirable qualities of children and underestimation of the difficulties they may encounter during the adoptees’ adjustment process. The results offer insights to adoption professionals with a view to enhancing the quality of prospective adoptive parents’ preparation before child placement.
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