Preparing to Adopt - Experiences of group preparation for prospective adopters

在收养中，我们发现了两个不同群体的需求；希望为人父母的成年人，以及需要永久住所的儿童。根据我过去15年在这一领域的工作经验，一个紧迫的问题是如何将父母的期望与孩子的需要结合起来。可被收养的孩子很可能在早期经历过一些创伤、分离和失去亲人，这可能会影响他们的发展和行为。“近年来，依恋研究越来越频繁地用于强调可能的创伤影响……这已经被证明是一个孩子到收养家庭的旅程的特征。（Luckock和Sims等人，2017）“研究让我们深入了解了这些孩子的经历，以及可能有用的养育方式。目前很少有关于采用者如何首先接收这些信息的可用信息。他们如何开始考虑满足这些孩子需求的潜力以及他们自己提供这些需求的能力？这对他们对自己的看法有什么影响，他们不仅是潜在的父母，而且是潜在的养父母？在我的实践中，我主要与收养家庭打交道，并观察到父母如何适应孩子的需求，并开始将他们的会面视为他们作为父母身份的重要组成部分。我希望把重点放在准备工作的一个方面，通过观察潜在收养人对父母身份的看法，来考虑它如何影响我们对这一过程的理解。我想通过考虑在评估期间强制参加小组培训计划来做到这一点。2008年，Rushton回顾了收养家庭准备的研究情况。报告指出，“尽管在这些研究中有时会提到管理困难行为的方法，但很少有进一步的细节说明提供了什么，教授了什么技能，以及是否吸收了任何建议并将其有效地运用到安置中。”显然需要研究，在安置前使具有技能的采用者做好准备在多大程度上是一项可行和有用的战略”。我提议进行一项研究，研究其中的一些细节。当收养者被介绍到关于儿童发展和失去和分离的影响的想法时，他们是如何经历这段旅程的最初阶段的？我们知道这是如何呈现给采用者的，以及他们在这个小组培训的经历中是否产生了任何主题？我建议进行一项研究，研究小组准备课程的内容，因为它与儿童的发展需要有关，并捕捉和考虑家庭在接收这些信息时的经验。我将使用一种定性的纵向方法，以便能够在这个过程中收集潜在采用者的经验，建立在我将在MRes期间完成的内容研究的基础上。这可以为实践提供信息，告诉他们如何最好地识别和帮助父母在许多情况下为那些开始生活受到干扰的孩子做好准备，同时也可以研究向父母过渡的一个方面。

Within adoption, we find the needs of two different groups; adults who wish to parent, and children in need of a permanent home. In my experience working in this field for the last fifteen years, a pressing issue is how to bring together the expectations of parents with the needs of the children. The children available for adoption are likely to have experienced some early trauma, separation and loss, which is likely to impact on their development and behaviour. "Attachment Research has been used with increasing frequency in recent years to highlight the likely traumatic effects... that have been shown to characterise a child's journey to an adoptive home. (Luckock and Sims et al. 2017) "Research has offered us insight into the experiences of these children, and potentially helpful ways of parenting them. There is little available information currently how adopters first receive this information. How do they begin to think about the potential of meeting these children's needs and their own capacity to offer this? What does this do to their conception of themselves, as not just potential parents but potential adoptive parents? In my practice, I predominately work with adoptive families, and have observed how parents can adapt to their children's needs, and begin to view the meeting of them as an essential part of their identity as parents. I wish to focus on one aspect of preparation to consider how it informs our understanding of this process by looking at prospective adopters' thoughts around their identity as parents. I would like to do this by considering the compulsory attendance at a group training programme during the assessment period. In 2008, Rushton reviewed the research picture on preparation for adoptive families. It identified that "Although methods for managing difficult behaviour are sometimes mentioned in these studies, few further details are given on what is offered, what skills are taught and whether any advice is absorbed and carried usefully into the placement. Research is clearly needed on the extent to which preparing adopters with skills in advance of placement is a feasible and useful strategy". I propose a study that would look at some of these details. How do adopters' experience this very early stage of their journey as they are introduced to ideas around children's development and the impact of loss and separation? What do we know about how this is presented to adopters, and whether there any themes that arise from their experiences of this group training? I propose a study to look at the content of the group preparation courses as it relates to children's developmental needs, and to capture and consider the experiences of the families as they receive this information. I will use a qualitative longitudinal method to be able to gather the experiences of prospective adopters in this process, building on a study of the content that I will complete during my MRes. This could inform practice around how best to identify and prepare parents for children who have a disrupted start to life, across many settings, while also looking at an aspect of transition to parenthood.