Demographic and evolutionary significance of adoption and fosterage

收养和寄养是改变生活的事件，在美国和世界各地的不同背景下出现。在出生环境之外，被收养和寄养儿童的福利是否以及以何种方式得到改善，是许多争论的主题。影响收养和寄养儿童福利的重要因素包括：导致收养和寄养的环境；收养和寄养儿童与亲生儿童的活动和待遇之间的差异；以及围绕收养和寄养的社会接受与耻辱。了解这些因素如何相互作用，促进或阻碍收养和寄养儿童的成功结果，对于定制家庭计划以适应美国主要由非亲生父母抚养的许多儿童的个性化需求至关重要。这项研究将在美拉尼西亚岛国瓦努阿图进行，在那里，收养和寄养是司空见惯的事情，其背景与美国少数民族人口的收养和寄养相当。该研究小组包括一名博士后学者、两名瓦努阿图研究生和一支由训练有素的私人侦探组成的国际团队，他们将利用一个进化框架来调查收养和寄养的原因和后果，该框架旨在了解收养和寄养如何促进家庭成功。研究人员将使用一套不同的方法，利用瓦努阿图这些做法的显著差异来评估哪些特定因素或因素集最能预测儿童结果的差异。具体而言，调查人员将使用问卷调查、访谈、饮食和活动回忆评估以及健康的人体测量测量来描述收养和寄养的情况，并将这些情况与儿童健康和福祉的差异联系起来。研究结果将通过研究社会和人口因素如何影响被收养和被寄养儿童的福利差异，从而为为收养和寄养家庭提供量身定制的支持提供见解。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Adoption and fosterage are life-altering events that arise in diverse contexts in the United States and across the globe. Whether and in what ways the welfare of adopted and fostered children improves outside their natal environment are subjects of much debate. Important factors affecting the welfare of adopted and fostered children include: the circumstances that lead to adoption and fosterage; differences between the activities and treatment of adopted and fostered children and of biological children; and societal acceptance versus stigma surrounding adoption and fosterage. Understanding how these factors interact to facilitate or inhibit successful outcomes for adopted and fostered children is critical for tailoring family programs to suit the individual needs of the many children who are reared primarily by non-natal parents in the United States. This research will be conducted in the Melanesian island nation of Vanuatu, where adoption and fosterage are commonplace and arise in contexts comparable to adoption and fosterage among minority populations in the United States. The research team, including a postdoctoral scholar, two ni-Vanuatu graduate students, and an international team of highly trained PIs, will investigate the causes and consequences of adoption and fosterage using an evolutionary framework that seeks to understand how adoption and fosterage contribute to familial success. The researchers will use a diverse set of methods that leverage the significant variation in these practices in Vanuatu to evaluate which specific factors or sets of factors best predict differences in child outcomes. Specifically, the investigators will use questionnaires, interviews, dietary and activity recall assessments, and anthropometric measurements of health to describe the circumstances surrounding adoption and fosterage and to tie such circumstances to differences in child health and well-being. Findings from the research will provide insight into tailoring support for adoptive and foster families by examining how social and demographic factors contribute to variation in the welfare of adopted and fostered children as compared to their biological counterparts.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.