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

描述（由申请人提供）：对有特殊需要的寄养儿童的连续安置仍然是全国儿童福利机构的一个高度优先事项。这些孩子经常表现出严重的情绪和行为问题，在收养合法化后很长一段时间内都在挑战他们的父母。事实上，越来越高的失败率（即，被中断或依法解除的收养关系与特殊需要安置有关。特殊需要问题对儿童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昂贵的。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，其中一半是10岁或10岁以上的儿童。这些儿童属于最难安置的儿童;他们的养父母需要具体和有效的培训。研究提供了越来越多的证据表明，收养后的服务，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，这些服务的父母培训部分是不需要的，而且在美国各地往往无法获得。现有的课程在质量和重点方面不一致。我们建议发展一系列共14个互动网上课程/工作坊，为有特殊需要的家长/年长领养子女的家长提供高品质、现成的中级和高级培训。采用实用方法的培训将解决收养的老年和/或特殊需要儿童经常表现出的一系列严重行为问题。这些问题可能包括性行为，自我伤害，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、与亲生家庭合作以及抚养跨种族/跨文化收养儿童的课程。在第一阶段，我们将开发和评估关于被收养儿童愤怒问题的课程/讲习班。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，与该计划的纯文本在线版本和无治疗对照组相比。培训将由西北媒体在线提供。参与本项目的受试者将获得有关养育特殊需要收养儿童的重要信息，这些信息可能有助于他们更好地理解和管理这些儿童的不安行为。因此，收养家庭的亲子关系质量可以得到改善，这有助于稳定收养安置，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.