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Jean Paton and the Struggle to Reform American Adoption
Jean Paton (1908-2002) fought tirelessly to reform American adoption and to overcome prejudice against adult adoptees and women who give birth out of wedlock. Paton wrote widely and passionately about the adoption experience, corresponded with policymakers as well as individual adoptees, promoted the psychological well-being of adoptees, and facilitated reunions between adoptees and their birth parents. E. Wayne Carp's masterful biography brings to light the accomplishments of this neglected civil-rights pioneer, who paved the way for the explosive emergence of the adoption reform movement in the 1970s. Her unflagging efforts over five decades helped reverse harmful policies, practices, and laws concerning adoption and closed records, struggles that continue to this day.
eBook
Parenthood and open adoption : an interpretative phenomenological analysis
This book explores what it is like to be involved in contemporary open adoption, characterised by varying forms of contact with birth relatives, from an adoptive parent point of view. The book also addresses current child welfare concerns, and suggestions are made for adoption practice.
Book
Migration to Open-Standard Interorganizational Systems: Network Effects, Switching Costs, and Path Dependency
As firms seek to improve coordination through the use of electronic interorganizational systems (IOS), open standards are becoming increasingly important. To better understand the process of standards diffusion, we investigate firms' migration from proprietary or less-open IOS (i.e., electronic data interchange or EDI) to open-standard IOS (i.e., the Internet). Theoretical work in economics suggests that network effects are a determinant of network adoption, yet the extant literature falls short of empirical testing of the theory. We develop a conceptual model that features network effects, expected benefits, and adoption costs as prominent antecedents. We examine the model on a large dataset of 1,394 firms. The empirical results demonstrate the significant impacts of network effects on open-standard IOS adoption. We find that adoption costs are a significant barrier to open-standard IOS adoption, but EDI users and nonusers treat this very differently: EDI users are much more sensitive to the costs of switching to the new standard. This finding illustrates that experience with older standards may create switching costs and make it difficult to shift to open and potentially better standards, a phenomenon called \"excess inertia\" in technology change. Further testing the underlying factors that contribute to network effects and adoption costs, we find that trading community influence is a key driver of network effects, while managerial complexity, as opposed to financial costs, is a key determinant of adoption costs. Overall we believe that this study, based on a rigorous empirical analysis of a unique international dataset, provides valuable insights into a set of key factors that influence standards diffusion.
Journal Article
Jean Paton and the struggle to reform American adoption
\"Pioneering adoption activist Jean Paton (1908-2002) fought effectively for 50 years to reform American adoption. Paton gave adult adoptees a voice and provided them with a healthy self-image; facilitated thousands of meetings between adult adoptees and their families of origin; fought to open sealed adoption records; and indefatigably explained the adoption experience to a wider public. Paton's ceaseless activity created the preconditions for the explosive emergence of the adoption reform movement in the 1970s. She was also instrumental in the formation of two of the movement's most vital organizations, Concerned United Birthparents and the American Adoption Congress. Using previously unexamined sources, historian E. Wayne Carp offers the first-ever biography of Jean Paton. Beginning in 1951, Paton, a twice-adopted, middle-aged ex-social worker, dedicated her life to overcoming American society's prejudices against adult adoptees and women who give birth out of wedlock. Her unflagging efforts over the next five decades helped reverse social workers' harmful policy and practice concerning adoption and sealed adoption records and change lawmakers' enactment of laws prejudicial to adult adoptees and birth mothers, struggles that continue to this day\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
The Placement of Children in Need of Out-of-Home Care: Forms of Care and Differences in Attachment Security and Behavioral Problems in the Italian Context
The current paper investigated differences in secure attachment levels and behavioral problems among four groups of children in out-of-home care in Italy: closed adoption (child and birth parents not in contact following adoption), open adoption (child and birth parents still in contact after placement), foster care (child living temporarily with relatives or unrelated foster parents) and institutional care (child in residential care for large groups of children). One hundred and thirty children aged 10–19 were included in this study. The Attachment Interview for Childhood and Adolescence and the Achenbach Youth Self-Report were employed to measure participants’ secure attachment levels and behavioral problems. Both a multivariate analysis of covariance and measured variable path analysis were performed. Age, gender and time elapsed between the request for child protection and placement on out-of-home care were used as covariates. The results showed that adolescents in closed adoption had higher secure attachment scores than those in foster care and institutional care, while adolescents in open adoption scored significantly higher on problem behaviors than those in the other out-of-home care groups. Findings were discussed in terms of limitations and implications for future research.
Journal Article
The Open Adoption Alternative, A Birthmother’s Perspective
This personal essay speaks to the life-altering impact of adoption, even in the case of a carefully planned and successful open adoption. The essay describes the experience of a birthmother over the course of twenty-two years in an open adoption.
Journal Article
Adoptive Parenting Cognitions in the Era of Open Adoption: Is Shared Fate Theory Still Relevant?
Objective To reexamine shared fate theory by validating the original measure of “acknowledgment of differences” (AOD) and testing the theory's relations in the current era of open adoptions. Background Shared fate theory states adoptive parents who acknowledge differences between adoptive and nonadoptive parenthood are better able to empathize with their child and promote open communication about adoption. The theory has not been validated in the context of modern adoption practices, such as birth family contact. Method Confirmatory factor analyses examined the validity of the original measure of AOD using a sample of 190 adoptive mothers whose families varied in level of birth family contact. Regression analyses examined the relation between AOD and empathy and communication 8 years later, as well as whether level of birth family contact moderated these relations. Results Results provided evidence for the validity of the measure of AOD. AOD in mothers significantly predicted empathy and communication 8 years later, with little evidence for moderation by level of birth family contact. Conclusion AOD has implications for parenting practices and remains an important adoptive parenting cognition, regardless of level of birth family contact. Implications AOD is a still relevant area of intervention for practitioners working with adoptive families.
Journal Article
“You are mum and then they are mum”: Negotiating roles, relationships, and contact in out‐of‐home care
Objective Birth family contact can be undermined by relationship difficulties between adults from children's two families, especially in relation to role ambiguity for mother figures. Research to understand relationships between birth mothers and female caregivers across all placement types is needed. Background In Australia, children in long‐term care, guardianship, and open adoption have direct contact with members of their birth families. The extent to which maternal figures work together is critical to children's ability to enjoy ongoing birth family connections, particularly First Nations children, who are overrepresented in out‐of‐home care. Method Qualitative methods were used to understand the personal attributes that influence relationships between five dyads of birth mothers and their child's female caregivers in New South Wales. Four were foster or kinship carers, two had adoptions underway, and one was a legal guardian. Three birth mothers identified as Aboriginal, and no caregivers did so. Analysis mapped birth mothers' acceptance and carers' communicative openness and interpreted influences of interpersonal skills, contact, and power dynamics on relationship quality. Results Positive and natural interactions between children’ mother figures can exist irrespective of legal arrangement when both are able to demonstrate emotional competence and learn relationship‐building skills and overcome power imbalances. Conclusion The complexity of managing relationships in the context of permanent child removal is influenced by how well children's two mother figures renegotiate their roles. Implications Families need support to discuss the goals and purpose of contact and identify relational resources and challenges. Professionals could use visit coaching to support children's two families in navigating contact.
Journal Article
Measuring Attitudes toward Open Adoption: Spanish Validation of the Open Adoption Scale
Background: Open adoption is a kind of adoption in which some degree of communication is formalized between the biological family and the adopted child or adoptive family. The present study analyzes the psychometric properties of the Spanish adaptation of the Open Adoption Scale, an instrument that assesses various negative attitudes toward open adoption. Method: The study involved 440 participants of both sexes who completed a sociodemographic questionnaire and the Open Adoption Scale. An exploratory factor analysis was performed with half of the sample and a confirmatory factor analysis with the other half. Results: High internal consistency indices were observed. Furthermore, an exploratory factor analysis and a confirmatory factor analysis supported construct validity. Finally, the strong relationships observed between the scale and four myths about the absence of benefits of open adoption supported convergent validity. Conclusions: The results support using the Spanish version to assess attitudes toward open adoption. Assessing attitudes toward open adoption is essential to implementing it, selecting candidates, and evaluating training processes for technicians and families.
Journal Article