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Mon, 2007-05-07 16:48 - Kerry

Adoption: It's not what it used to be

http://www.pregnancyoutreach.org/AdoptionNotWhatItUsedToBe.htm

From the beginning of the 20th century through the 1950’s and 1960’s, unwed pregnancy was considered extremely shameful. Although a thin cloud of shame remains, the sexual revolution of the 60’s changed forever the way families dealt with unwed pregnancy.

In the first half of the century, it was common for pregnant girls to be “sent away” to maternity homes or to a distant family member's home to have their baby in secret. Someone made arrangements for the baby to be adopted. After the birth, the child was whisked away from the birthmother. She often did not even know if she had given birth to a boy or a girl. The adoption worker told her it was best if she knew nothing of the baby. She was told to forget about the whole experience and get on with her life.

The issue of shame drove the train of secrecy. It was shameful for a woman to pregnant out of wedlock. The thought followed that a child born out of wedlock must therefore come from "bad blood." Professionals involved in adoption advised birthparents and adoptive parents that it was best for adoption to remain secret.

The adopted baby grew up in his adopted home. Adoption workers told the families to move on with their lives as if the child was born biologically to them. Sometimes the child was never told he was adopted. The children who were not told of their adoption at an early age, usually found out later when a friend or relative accidentally let “the cat out of the bag.”

Sometimes children were told of their adoption, but it usually was not a topic that families discussed. These adopted children grew up with questions about their birth heritage, but had no one they could go to for answers. Consequently, many made up their own answers through fantasy. Some imagined their birthmother as a Fairy Princess who would one day return for him. She was perfect in every way and would never discipline him like his mom and dad.

Sometimes adopted kids would imagine that they must have done something very bad. That could be the only explanation of why their birthparents “gave them away.” Some adopted kids, with many unanswered or avoided questions, experienced emotional and behavioral problems. Many adopted kids began to search for their birthfamily when they became adults to get answers to their legitimate questions.

Comments

Wed, 2007-05-09 18:58 — Kerry

What's different in Adoption now?

Awareness.

There is an awareness of troubled issues, problems and disorders rooted in the removal of a child from his/her mother.

Attaching and Bonding in Adoption

For most children who are adopted, this transition from a known way of life--however good or bad it may be--to an unknown world represents a major life change as well as a significant life "loss." Yet, even though such transition may be difficult at first, most adoption stories have very happy endings!
Children of all ages placed for adoption do make a remarkable adjustment in being with their new family in a fairly short period of time. And their new families embrace them with great love, care and sensitivity to their needs. During this transitional time, which can last from just a few days or weeks to a few months or even years, each person in the family begins to bond and form a loving attachment with the new child.
Attachment is a core issue in adoption. Because without successful attachment, life is often difficult, stressful, empty or lonely for the child.
Wed, 2007-05-09 20:13 — Kerry

Disorderly conduct: RADical adaptations

Reactive attachment disorder of infancy or early childhood

 

Definition   

Reactive attachment disorder is a disturbance of social interaction caused by neglect of a child's basic physical and emotional needs, particularly during infancy.

Babies placed in orphanages at birth and raised by multiple caretakers without primary parent-figures can also develop this disorder, even if physical care was adequate.

Causes, incidence, and risk factors   

Reactive attachment disorder is caused by neglect of an infant's needs for physical safety, food, touching, and emotional bonds with a primary and/or secondary caretaker.

The risk of neglect to the infant or child is increased with parental isolation, lack of parenting skills, teen parents, or a caregiver who is mentally retarded. A frequent change in caregivers (for example, orphanages or foster care) is another cause of reactive attachment disorder.

Children adopted from foreign orphanages are commonly affected, particularly if they were removed from their birth parents during the first weeks of life.

Symptoms   

Child:

  • Resists social interaction
  • Seeks isolation
  • Difficult to comfort
  • Avoids physical contact
  • Avoids caregiver
  • Indiscriminate sociability with strangers

Caregiver:

  • Disregard for child's basic emotional needs for comfort, stimulation, and affection
  • Disregard for child's basic physical needs like food, toileting, and play

Signs and tests   

A complete history and physical examination, and psychiatric evaluation can help diagnose this disorder.

Treatment   

Treatment is twofold. The first priority is to make sure the child is currently in a safe environment where emotional and physical needs are met.

Once that has been established, the next step is to alter the relationship between the caregiver and the child, if the caregiver has caused the problem. Parenting skills classes can help with this. These skills give the caregiver an ability to meet the child's needs and help them bond with their child.

The caregiver should also undergo counseling to work on any current problems, such as drug abuse or family violence. Social Services should follow the family to make sure the child remains in a safe, stable environment.

Parents who adopt babies or young children from foreign orphanages should be aware that this condition may occur and be sensitive to the needs of the child for consistency, physical affection, and love.

These children may be frightened of people and find physical affection overwhelming at first, and parents should try not to see this as rejection. It is a normal response in someone who has been maltreated to avoid contact. Hugs should be offered frequently, but not forced.

A comprehensive mental health evaluation should be completed. This evaluation will be helpful in developing a treatment plan.

Expectations (prognosis)   

With appropriate intervention, the outcome can be improved.

Complications   

If not treated, this condition can permanently affect the child's social interactions. It can be connected with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, and other psychological problems.

Calling your health care provider   

This disorder is usually identified when a parent (or prospective parent) is identified as being at high risk for neglect or when an adoptive parent has difficulty coping with a newly adopted child.

If you have recently adopted a child from a foreign orphanage or another situation where neglect may have occurred and your child exhibits these symptoms, see your health care provider.

Prevention   

Early recognition is very important for the child. Once a parent is identified as being at high risk for neglect, parenting skills should be taught. The patient should be followed by either a social worker or doctor to make sure the child's needs are being met.

 

Update Date: 6/13/2006

Wed, 2007-05-09 20:51 — Kerry

What They Knew and Didn't Tell Us

 

SEVEN CORE ISSUES OF ADOPTION.

Kaplan.S.; Silverstein. D. [1991]:

 

  1. Loss: Adoption is created through loss. Without loss there can be no adoption.

     

  2. Rejection: One way people deal with loss is to figure out what they did was wrong so they can keep from having other losses. In doing this, people may conclude they suffered losses because they were unworthy of having whatever was lost. As a result they feel they were rejected.

     

  3. Guilt and shame: When people personalize a loss to the extent that they feel there is something intrinsically wrong with themselves that caused the loss, they often feel guilt that they did something wrong or feel shame that others may know. (Silverstein).

     

  4. Grief: Because adoption is seen as a problem solving event in which everyone gains, rather than an event in which loss is integral, it is difficult for adoptees, adoptive parents, and birthparents to grieve. There are no rituals to bury unborn children, roles, dead dreams and disconnected families.

     

  5. Identity: A person's identity is derived from who he is and what he is not. Adoption threatens a persons knowing of who he is, where he came from, and where he is going.

     

  6. Intimacy: People who are confused about their identity have difficulty getting close to anyone, Kaplan says. And people who have had significant loss in their lives may fear getting close to others because of the risk of experiencing loss again.

     

  7. Control: All those involved with adoption have been "forced to give up control" said Silverstein. Adoption is a second choice. There is a crisis who's resolution is adoption.

     

 

Other findings: 

PSYCHOLOGY OF THE ADOPTED CHILD.  [1943.]

FANTASIES AND BEHAVIOUR OF THE ADOPTED CHILD [1960]

DISABILITIES IN ADOPTED CHILDREN AND ADOPTIVE PARENTS [1962]

ADOPTED CHILDREN DISABILITIES [1963]

FANTASY OF ADOPTED CHILDREN AND ADOPTIVE PARENTS [1963]

ADOPTED CHILDREN ["Adoption Syndrome", 1967]

DISABILITIES OF ADOPTED CHILDREN [1970]

ABUSE [1971]

IDENTITY [1974]

ABANDONMENT [1975]

ADOPTED CHILDREN ADMITTED INTO RESIDENTIAL PSYCHIATRIC CARE [1976]

ADOPTED ADOLESCENTS [1980.]  

ADOPTIVE ANXIETY, RAGE AND GUILT [1985]

BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER IN ADOPTEES [1986]

ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOUR IN ADOPTEES. ADOPTED CHILD SYNDROME [1988]

IDENTITY IN ADOPTEES [1988]

WHY DO ADOPTEES SEARCH? [1988]

THE BABY [1991]

THE PRIMAL WOUND [1991]

Sun, 2007-05-20 04:03 — neophyte

1943???

They started doing studies on the effects of adoption back in 1943?  Are you shittin' me?  And The Primal Wound, written in '91 is the most recent garbage we get to sift-through if we want to figure-out all the crap gifted to us through parental abandonment/adoption?  That has got to be incorrect.... or at the very least, that's an incomplete list.

I'm really curious now.

I'll be back, with more, (I hope)!

 

Sun, 2007-05-20 04:59 — neophyte

Negative Effects

NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF FOSTER CARE ON EMOTIONAL, INTELLECTUAL & PSYCHOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT

http://brainmind.com/NeurologyMaternalNeglect.html

It is now well established that Foster Care can be profoundly injurious to a child's mental health (Harden, 2004; Pediatrics 2000), and that "children in foster care have more compromised developmental outcomes than children who do not experience placement in foster care (Harden, 2004).

In fact, children in foster care are more likely to develop behavioral, educational, and emotional problems than children who are raised by abusive and high-risk parents (Bass et al., 2004; Harden, 2004; Kortenkamp, K., and Ehrle, 2002; Lawrence et al. 2006 NSCAW 2004). In Angela's case, there was no evidence of abuse in the parental home.

Children in foster care are also more likely to suffer from health problems, even though, ostensibly they have better access to health care (Bass et al., 2004; Horowitz, 2000).

Children between the ages of 1 month to 3 years are particularly susceptible to emotional harm from foster care, as they are the most fragile (Bass et al., 2004; Perry, 2002).

Foster care can injure a child's emotional development and can lead to negative development outcomes due to inconsistent nurturing and maternal contact (Cassidy et al. 1996). When placed in Foster Care, and if maternal care or care provided by the primary caretaker is inconsistent or inadequate, such as in the case of Angela, children become more insecurely attached and develop abnormal attachments (Cassidy & Berlin 1994; Zeanah et al. 2001).

As detailed by Harden (2004) children placed in Foster Care and who received inconsistent nurturing care from the primary caretaker, and who "have disrupted attachments to their caregivers, display overly vigilant or overly compliant behaviors, show indiscriminate connection to every adult, or do not demonstrate attachment behaviors to any adult. Children with insecure, “disordered” or “disorganized” attachments may also have many other adverse outcomes that persist throughout childhood, such as poor peer relationships, behavioral problems, or other mental health difficulties." Similar findings have been presented by other scientists (Carlson 1998, Lyons-Ruth, 1996).

Children placed in Foster Homes also exhibit "elevated levels of cortisol compared to children reared by their biological parents" (Harden, 2004). Cortisol is secreted in response to stress, and cortisol not only effects the brain but can injure the immune system.

As detailed earlier in this report, children who are removed from their mothers also have a tendency to become ill, and even to die. Likewise, according to Harden (2004) "Many studies have pointed to the deleterious impact of foster care on children's physical health, cognitive and academic functioning, and social-emotional wellbeing. In the area of physical health, pediatric and public health scholars have documented that foster children have a higher level of morbidity throughout childhood than do children not involved in the foster care system."

Likewise, according to the NSCAW, a significant proportion of children placed in Foster Care, suffer from compromised cognitive, intellectual, and academic functioning (National survey of child and adolescent well-being NSCAW, 2001). Specifically, the NSCAW found that over 1/3 of infants and toddlers and 1/2 of pre-school age children scored in the delayed range of development. Similar findings have been presented by other scientists (Konekamp & Ehrle, 2002, Pears & Fisher, 2005; Swayer & Dubowitz, 1994).

Children placed in Foster Care have higher rates of depression, abnormal social skills, are more impulsive, become more aggressive, and are more insecurely attached and have insecure and disordered attachment behaviors (Clausen et al., 1998; Stein et al., 1996).

Children placed in Foster Care do more poorly than children who are left in high-risk homes where parents are neglectful or abusive (Lawrence et al. 2006) Likewise, behavior problems are worse as compared to those raised by maltreating care givers(Lawrence et al. 2006). Likewise, according to a NSCAW (2003) study, children placed in Foster Care show more compromised social-emotional functioning than children raised in a high risk environment. However, in this case, Angela was not being abused or neglected by her parents. In this regard, and given these findings and the research reviewed above it is thus clear that Angela developed these problems precisely because was placed in foster care.

In fact, in a study released on April 6, 2005, by the Casey Family Programs, Harvard Medical School, the State of Washington Office of Children’s Administration Research, and the State of Oregon Department of Human Services,it was reported that children raised in Foster Homes are highly likely to develop PTSD and that the rates of PTSD among adults who were formerly placed in foster care was twice as high as among U.S. war veterans.

As detailed in the Casey Family study, in addition to the PTSD, 54.4% of adults formerly in foster care were found to be suffering from depression, social phobia, panic syndrome, and anxiety. Moreover, it was found that 80% of adults who had been placed in Foster Care as children, were doing poorly, with a quarter to one third becoming homeless or living below the poverty level.

ABUSE WHILE IN FOSTER CARE:

In states from California to New York, and in counties and cities from Santa Clara County and San Jose, to New York City and Maryland, it has been reported that over 20% of children placed in Foster Care are sexually and physically abused or suffer from profound neglect while in Foster Care (United States District Court, D. Maryland, L.J. By and Through Darr v. Massinga, decision, Civ. No. JH-84-4409, September 27, 1988. F.Supp. 508 (D.Md. 1988); Testimony of Stephen P. Berzon, Foster Care: Problems and Issues, hearing, Subcommittee on Select Education, Committee on Education and Labor, U.S. House of Representatives, September 8, 1976; Casereading conducted by Theodore J. Stein in conjunction with Del A. v. Edwin Edwards, (1988); David Kaplovitz and Louis Genevie, Foster Children in Jackson County, Missouri: A Statistical Analysis of Files Maintained by the Division of Family Services, (1981); Testimony of Marcia Robinson Lowry, Foster Care, Child Welfare, and Adoption Reforms, Joint Hearings before the Subcommittee on Public Assistance and Unemployment Compensation of the Committee on Ways and Means and the Select Committee on Children, Youth and Families, U.S. House of Representatives, April 13 and 28, May 12, 1988; Superior Court of Arizona, Maricopa County, Bogutz v. Arizona, 2nd amended civil complaint, No. CV94-04159. July 1994.)

In a Maryland study, substantiated allegations of sexual abuse have been reported to be four times higher than found among the general population (Mary I. Benedict and Susan Zuravin, Factors Associated With Child Maltreatment By Family Foster Care Providers (Baltimore: John Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, 1992).

Likewise, in a study conducted by the National Foster Care Education Project (1986) and the American Civil Liberties Union's Children's Rights Project (1993) it was found that Foster Children are 10 times more likely to be abused than children from the general population (Farber, 1993; Maier, 1997).

Children placed in Foster Care in California are also typically "subjected to inadequate supervision, substandard conditions and inadequate health care and education" (Gunnison, 1996); a conclusion also reached by the Santa Clara County Grand Jury (1993) and by members of the 1998-1999, Santa Clara County Grand Jury.

As concluded by the California-based Little Hoover Commission (1992) regarding children placed in Foster Care: "children can come to harm--and even die--while supposedly under the protection of foster care."

DISCUSSION

The scientific and forensic evidence is overwhelming and cannot be disputed: maternal deprivation is incredibly stressful and will profoundly effect all aspects of social, emotional, intellectual, behavioral, and even sexual functioning. Likewise, even temporary periods of maternal separation are incredibly stressful and will cause injury.

Similarly, placement in foster care will profoundly effect all aspects of social, emotional, intellectual, behavioral, and academic functioning. In fact, children placed in Foster Care do more poorly than children who are left in high-risk homes where parents are neglectful or abusive (Lawrence et al. 2006) Likewise, behavior problems are worse as compared to those raised by maltreating care givers (Lawrence et al. 2006). Likewise, according to a NSCAW (2003) study, children placed in Foster Care show more compromised social-emotional functioning than children raised in a high risk environment.

Tue, 2007-05-22 17:29 — Kerry

Historically Speaking...

Adoption History in Brief

1851

Massachusetts passed the first modern adoption law, recognizing adoption as a social and legal operation based on child welfare rather than adult interests. Historians consider the 1851 Adoption of Children Act an important turning point because it directed judges to ensure that adoption decrees were “fit and proper.” How this determination was to be made was left entirely to judicial discretion.

1854

New York Children's Aid Society, under the direction of reformer Charles Loring Brace, launched the orphan trains.

1868

Massachusetts Board of State Charities began paying for children to board in private family homes: in 1869, an agent was appointed to visit children in their homes. This was the beginning of placing-out, a movement to care for children in families rather than institutions.

1872

New York State Charities Aid Association was organized. It was one of the first organizations in the country to establish a specialized child-placement program, in 1898. By 1922, homes for more than 3300 children had been found. The first major outcome study, How Foster Children Turn Out (1924), was based on the work of this agency.

1891

Michigan was the first state to require that “the [the judge] shall be satisfied as to the good moral character, and the ability to support and educate such child, and of the suitableness of the home, or the person or persons adopting such child.”

1898

The Catholic Home Bureau was organized in New York by the St. Vincent De Paul Society. It was the first Catholic agency to place children in homes rather than orphanages, a model soon followed in other cities.

1904

The first social work school, the New York School of Applied Philanthropy, opened its doors.

1909

First White House Conference on the Care of Dependent Children declared that poverty alone should not be grounds for removing children from families. When children required placement for other reasons, however, they were to be placed in family homes, “the highest and finest product of civilization”;Sigmund Freud published “Family Romances.”

1910-1930

The first specialized adoption agencies were founded, including the Spence Alumni Society, the Free Synagogue Child Adoption Committee, the Alice Chapin Nursery (all in New York) and the Cradle in Evanston, Illinois.

1911

Dr. Arnold Gesell founded the Juvenile Psycho Clinic (later the Clinic of Child Development) at Yale.

1912

Congress created the U.S. Children's Bureau in the Department of Labor “to investigate and report on all matters pertaining to the welfare of children and child life among all classes of our people”; Julia Lathrop was appointed as its first chief, the first woman to head a federal agency.

1912-1921

Baby farming, commercial maternity homes, and adoption ad investigations took place in Boston, New York, Baltimore, Chicago, and other cities.

1915

Bureau for Exchange of Information Among Child-Helping Organizations founded (renamed Child Welfare League of America in 1921); Abraham Flexner declared social work “hardly eligible” for professional status.

1916

Lewis Terman's revision of the Binet scale popularized the intelligence quotient, or I.Q. Worries about the “feeble-minded” mentality of children available for adoption, and trends toward measuring their mental potential as one part of the adoption process, usually with mental tests, grew out of the eugenics movement in the early part of the century.

1917

Minnesota passed first law mandating social investigation of all adoptions (including home studies) and providing for the confidentiality of adoption records.

1919

The Russell Sage Foundation published the first professional child-placing manual; U.S. Children's Bureau set minimum standards for child-placing; Jessie Taft authored an early manifesto for therapeutic adoption, “Relation of Personality Study to Child Placing.”

1919-1929

The first empirical field studies of adoption gathered basic information about how many adoptions were taking place, of whom, and by whom.

1921

Child Welfare League of America formally renamed and organized. The League adopted a Constitution that defined standard-setting as one of the organization's core purposes; American Association of Social Workers founded.

1924

First major outcome study, How Foster Children Turn Out, published.

1934

The state of Iowa began administering mental tests to all children placed for adoption in hopes of preventing the unwitting adoption of retarded children (called “feeble-minded” at the time). This policy inspired nature-nurture studies at the Iowa Child Welfare Station that eventually served to challenge hereditarian orthodoxies and promote policies of early family placement.

1935

Social Security Act included provision for aid to dependent children, crippled children's programs, and child welfare, which eventually led to a dramatic expansion of foster care; American Youth Congress issued “The Declaration of the Rights of American Youth”; Justine Wise Polier was appointed to head the Domestic Relations Court of Manhattan. She became an important early critic of matching in adoption.

1937-1938

First Child Welfare League of America initiative that distinguished minimum standards for permanent (adoptive) and temporary (foster) placements.

1939

Valentine P. Wasson published The Chosen Baby, a landmark in the literature on telling children about their adopted status.

1944

In Prince v. Massachusetts, a case involving Jehovah's Witnesses, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the state's power as parens patriae to restrict parental control in order to guard “the general interest in youth's well being.”

1948

The first recorded transracial adoption of an African-American child by white parents took place in Minnesota.

1949

New York was the first state to pass a law against black market adoptions, which proved unenforceable in practice.

1953

Uniform Adoption Act first proposed. Few states ever adopted it; Jean Paton founded Orphan Voyage, the first adoptee search support network.

1953-1954

Child Welfare League of America conducted nationwide survey of adoption agency practices.

1953-1958

The first nationally coordinated effort to locate adoptive homes for African American children, the National Urban League Foster Care and Adoptions Project.

1954

Helen Doss published The Family Nobody Wanted; Jean Paton published The Adopted Break Silence, the first book to offer a variety of first-person adoption narratives and promote the notion that adoptees had a distinctive identity.

1955

Child Welfare League of America national conference on adoption in Chicago announced that the era of special needs adoption had arrived; Congressional inquiry into interstate and black market adoptions, chaired by Senator Estes Kefauver (D-TN), suggested that poor adoption practices created juvenile delinquency; Proposed federal law on black market adoptions introduced by Senators Kefauver (D-TN) and Edward Thye (R-MN), but it never passed Congress; National Association of Social Workers founded, consolidating a number of other social work organizations; Bertha and Harry Holt adopted eight Korean War orphans after a special act of Congress allowed them to do so; Pearl S. Buck accused social workers and religious institutions of sustaining the black market and preventing the adoption of children in order to preserve their jobs; Adopt-A-Child founded by the National Urban League and fourteen New York agencies to promote African-American adoptions.

1957

International Conference on Intercountry Adoptions issued report on problems of international adoptions; U.S. adoption agencies sponsored legislation to prohibit or control proxy adoptions.

1958

Child Welfare League of America published Standards of Adoption Service (revised in 1968, 1973, 1978, 1988, 2000); Indian Adoption Project began.

1959

UN Assembly adopted Declaration of the Rights of the Child, endorsed in 1960 by Golden Anniversary White House Conference on Children and Youth.

1961

The Immigration and Nationality Act incorporated, for the first time, provisions for the international adoption of foreign-born children by U.S. citizens.

1960

Psychiatrist Marshall Schechter published a study claiming that adopted children were 100 times more likely than their non-adopted counterparts to show up in clinical populations. This sparked a vigorous debate about whether adoptive kinship was itself a risk factor for mental disturbance and illness and inspired a new round of studies into the psychopathology of adoption.

1962-1965

Special conference on child abuse, led by Katherine Oettinger, chief of the Children's Bureau, generated proposals for new laws requiring doctors to notify law enforcement and most states adopted such legislation.

1963

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development established as part of the National Institutes of Health; U.S. Children's Bureau moved from Social Security Administration to Welfare Administration.

1964

H. David Kirk published Shared Fate: A Theory of Adoption and Mental Health, the first book to make adoption a serious issue in the sociological literature on family life and mental health.

1965

The Los Angeles County Bureau of Adoptions launched the first organized program of single parent adoptions in order to locate homes for hard-to-place children with special needs. 1966 The National Adoption Resource Exchange, later renamed the Adoption Resource Exchange of North America (ARENA), was established as an outgrowth of the Indian Adoption Project.

1969

President Nixon created the Office of Child Development in HEW to coordinate and administer Head Start and U.S. Children's Bureau functions.

1970

Adoptions reached their century-long statistical peak at approximately 175,000 per year. Almost 80 percent of the total were arranged by agencies.

1971

Florence Fisher founded the Adoptees Liberty Movement Association “to abolish the existing practice of sealed records” and advocate for “opening of records to any adopted person over eighteen who wants, for any reason, to see them.”

1972

National Association of Black Social Workers opposed transracial adoptions; Stanley v. Illinois substantially increased the rights of unwed fathers in adoption by requiring informed consent and proof of parental unfitness prior to termination of parental rights.

1973

Roe v. Wade legalized abortion; Beyond the Best Interests of the Child articulated the influential concept of “psychological parent,” which prioritized continuity of nurture and speedy and permanent decisions in legal proceedings related to child placement and adoption.

1976

Concerned United Birthparents founded

1978

Indian Child Welfare Act passed by Congress; American Adoption Congress founded

1980

Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act offered significant funding to states that supported subsidy programs for special needs adoptions and devoted resources to family preservation, reunification, and the prevention of abuse, neglect, and child removal.

1989

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

1993

Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Co-operation in respect to Intercountry Adoption

1994

Multiethnic Placement Act was the first federal law to concern itself with race in adoption. It prohibited agencies receiving federal funds from denying transracial adoptions on the sole basis of race, but permitted the use of race as one factor, among others, in foster and adoptive placements. A 1996 revision to this law, the Inter-Ethnic Adoption Amendment, made it impermissible to employ race at all.

1996

Bastard Nation founded. Its mission statement promoted “the full human and civil rights of adult adoptees,” including access to sealed records.

1997

Adoption and Safe Families Act stressed permanency planning for children and represented a policy shift away from family reunification and toward adoption.

1998

Oregon voters passed Ballot Measure 58, allowing adult adoptees access to original birth certificates. This legal blow to confidentiality and sealed records was stalled by legal challenges to the measure's constitutionality, which eventually failed. The measure has been in effect in Oregon since June 2000.

2000

The Child Citizenship Act of 2000 allowed foreign-born adoptees to become automatic American citizens when they entered the United States, eliminating the legal burden of naturalization for international adoptions; Census 2000 included “adopted son/daughter” as a kinship category for the first time in U.S. history.

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Field Studies

Outcome Studies

Nature-Nurture Studies

Psychopathology Studies