Demographic and evolutionary significance of adoption and fosterage

收养和寄养的人口统计学和进化意义

• 批准号: 1920812
• 负责人: Siobhán Mattison
• 金额: $ 39.69万
• 依托单位: University of New Mexico
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-12-01 至 2025-05-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1920812&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Demographic; evolutionary; significance; adoption; fosterage

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.

采用和寄养是在美国和全球各种环境中发生的改变生命的事件。无论是什么方式，被收养和养育的儿童的福利在其出生环境之外的改善都是辩论的主题。影响收养和养育儿童福利的重要因素包括：导致采用和寄养的情况；被收养和养育儿童和生物儿童的活动与治疗之间的差异；以及围绕采用和寄养的社会接受与污名。了解这些因素如何相互作用以促进或抑制被收养和养育儿童的成功成果，这对于调整家庭计划以适应美国主要由美国非纳塔尔父母养育的许多孩子的个人需求。这项研究将在美拉尼西亚岛国瓦努阿图进行，在那里采用和寄养是司空见惯的，并且在美国少数民族人口中的采用和寄养的情况下会出现。该研究团队，包括博士后学者，两名Ni-Vanuatu研究生以及一个由训练有素的PI的国际团队，将使用一个进化框架来调查采用和寄养的原因和后果，该框架试图了解采用和寄养如何为家族成功做出贡献。研究人员将使用各种方法来利用瓦努阿图这些实践的显着差异来评估哪些特定因素或一组因素最能预测儿童结局的差异。具体而言，研究人员将使用问卷，访谈，饮食和活动召回评估以及对健康的人体测量测量来描述围绕采用和寄养的情况，并将这种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统计因素如何促进对收养和培养家庭的裁缝支持的见解，与他们的生物学对应物相比，社会和人口统计学因素如何促进被收养和养育儿童的福利变化。这项奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过使用该基金会的知识优点和广泛的影响来评估NSF的法定任务。