Advanced Web-Based Training for Adoptive Parents of Special Needs Children

描述(由申请人提供)：收养有特殊需要的寄养儿童仍然是全国儿童福利机构的高度优先事项。这些孩子经常表现出严重的情感和行为问题，在收养合法化很久之后，这些问题对他们的父母构成了挑战。事实上，收养不成功(即中断或合法解散)的比率越来越高，与特殊需要安置有关。特殊需求问题对孩子和父母来说都是情感上昂贵的，最终对机构和国家来说也是经济上的代价。尽管1997年通过了《收养和安全家庭法》，但仍有大约119,000名“等待”的寄养儿童，其中一半在10岁或以上。这些孩子属于最难安置的人之列；他们的养父母需要接受具体而有效的培训。研究提供了越来越多的证据表明，收养后服务，特别是正在进行的养父母培训，与满意、稳定和完整的收养安置呈正相关。然而，这些服务的家长培训部分并不是必需的，而且通常不会在美国各地提供。现有的课程在质量和重点上都不一致。我们建议发展一系列14个互动式网上课程/工作坊，旨在为有特殊需要的父母/年龄较大的领养儿童的父母提供高质素、现成的中级和高级培训。采用实际方法的培训将解决儿童经常表现出的年龄较大和/或特殊需要的一系列严重行为问题。这些问题可能包括性行为、自残、撒谎、饮食失调、睡眠问题、逃跑、偷窃、ADHD或RAD。还将提供关于积极和安全的育儿技巧、与生育家庭合作以及养育跨种族/跨文化领养儿童的课程。在第一阶段，我们将开发和评估一个关于领养儿童愤怒问题的课程/讲习班。这项可行性研究将测试课程/研讨会在增加父母对愤怒问题的认识方面的有效性，与纯文本在线版本的程序和不治疗的对照组相比。培训将由西北传媒在线提供。参与此项目的受试者将获得有关养育有特殊需要的领养儿童的重要信息，这些信息可能有助于他们更好地了解和管理这些儿童的干扰行为。因此，收养家庭的亲子关系质量可以提高，这可以帮助稳定收养安置，并改善儿童的短期和长期心理健康结果。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Adoptive placement of special needs foster children remains a high priority for child welfare agencies across the country. These children often show significant emotional and behavioral problems that challenge their parents long after the legalization of the adoption. Indeed, increasingly higher rates of unsuccessful (i.e., disrupted or legally dissolved) adoptions are associated with special needs placements. Special needs problems are emotionally expensive to both the child and parents and ultimately financially expensive to the agency and the state. Despite the passage of the Adoption and Safe Families Act in 1997, there are approximately 119,000 "waiting" foster children, half of them ten years or older. These children are among the most difficult to place; their adoptive parents require specific and effective trainings. Research provides mounting evidence that post-adoptive services, notably ongoing adoptive parent training, are positively correlated with satisfying, stable, and intact adoptive placements. However, the parent training components of these services are not required and often not available throughout the US. The available courses are inconsistent in quality and focus. We propose developing a series of 14 interactive online courses/workshops designed to provide parents of special needs/ older-aged adopted children with high quality, readily available, intermediate and advanced training. The training with a practical approach would address a spectrum of serious behavior problems that adopted older and/or special needs children often exhibit. These problems may include sexualized behavior, self-harm, lying, eating disorders, sleep problems, running away, stealing, ADHD, or RAD. Courses will also be offered on positive and safe parenting techniques, working with birth families, and raising transracial/transcultural adopted children. In Phase I we will develop and evaluate a course/workshop on adopted children's' anger problems. The feasibility study will test the effectiveness of the course/workshop on increasing parents' knowledge of anger problems compared with a text-only online version of the program and a no-treatment control group. The training will be offered online by Northwest Media. Subjects participating in this project will gain important information about parenting special needs adoptive children that may help them to better understand and manage these children's disturbed behaviors. As a result, the quality of parent-child relationships in adoptive families could improve, which could help stabilize adoptive placements and improve children's short- and long-term mental health outcomes.