Education Center for Adoptive Parents Online

简介（由申请人提供）：收养父母教育中心在线（ECAPO）收养在过去的30年里发生了巨大的变化，主要是由于当代收养关系的复杂性，越来越多地涉及国际，多民族，多种族和寄养安置。被收养的青少年行为问题和心理失调的发生率一直很高。这些被收养的青年问题的发生率比非被收养的青年高得多。专家认为，养育能力是扭转这一趋势的主要中介因素，但许多养父母对自己有效养育孩子的能力缺乏能力和信心。迫切需要提供便利的、以研究为基础的培训，以提高收养父母的能力，并确保收养儿童的长期健康适应。最近颁布的《跨国收养海牙公约》肯定了这一需要，迫使条约签署国要求对未来的收养父母进行培训。许多国家现在要求海牙标准适用于所有收养案件。拟议的项目，即在线养父母教育中心（ECAPO）的中心目标是解决这些缺陷，提高养父母的能力，最终促进被收养儿童的长期健康适应。为此，我们将开发并正式评估一个基于交互式在线媒体的项目，以满足养父母的需求。材料将以强有力的概念框架为基础，并将针对已知的因素，以缓冲风险因素对被收养儿童适应的影响。ECAPO将包含一套独特的技能培养教学组件，通过创新的网络交付平台（IRISedOnline）交付，这将使收养服务提供商能够将ECAPO纳入现有的网站，以增加和改善为收养家庭提供的服务。在第一阶段，开发了第一个程序模块，并对其可行性进行了满意的评估。第二阶段的工作将集中于开发和评估整个项目。完成后，ECAPO将分为6个基本模块和2个涉及专门主题的额外信息模块，并将按照2002年《海牙公约》的要求提供10小时以上的养父母培训。该计划涵盖了专家认为对收养家庭特别重要的主题内容：(1)理解收养（依恋、身份、种族、文化等问题）；(2)家庭内部关于收养相关问题的沟通（在第一阶段发展和评估）；(3)与大家庭、外界、学校沟通收养事宜；(4)促进被收养儿童在家庭环境中的适应能力；(5)在收养环境下的补救性养育和风险抵消；(6)培养跨种族和/或跨文化收养儿童的文化能力。这两个额外单元将涵盖(a)寄养收养和(b)关于混合家庭、兄弟姐妹、特殊需要、亲属收养的收养信息。六项任务将指导第二阶段计划的发展：(1)召集开发团队起草内容大纲，并使内容与教学交付保持一致；(2)进行关键信息提供者访谈并促进焦点小组；(3)产生第二阶段项目资产；(4)设计和开发交付网站的增强功能；(5)将项目上传到网站并进行可用性测试；(6)通过330名参与者的大型随机对照试验，对干预组和对照组的结果进行比较，招募参与者并评估项目效果。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Education Center for Adoptive Parents Online (ECAPO) Adoption has undergone dramatic change in the past 30 years, due largely to the complexity of contemporary adoptive relationships, which increasingly involve international, multi-ethnic, multi-racial, and foster care placements. Adoptive youth experience consistently high rates of behavior problems and psychological maladjustments. These adoptive youth issues occur at a disproportionately higher rate than among non-adoptive youth. Experts see parenting competence as the primary mediating factor in reversing this trend, yet many adoptive parents lack competence and confidence in their ability to parent effectively. There is a compelling need for accessible, research-based training that enhances adoptive parents' competence and ensures the long-term healthy adjustment of adopted children. Affirming this need, the recently enacted Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption compels treaty signatories to require training for prospective adoptive parents. Many states now require Hague standards to be applied to all adoption cases. The central aim of the proposed project, The Education Center for Adoptive Parents Online (ECAPO), is to address these deficiencies and enhance the competence of adoptive parents, ultimately advancing the long- term healthy adjustment of adopted children. To that end, we will develop and formally evaluate an interactive online media-based program to meet the needs of adoptive parents. Materials will be grounded in a strong conceptual framework and will target factors known to buffer the effect of risk factors on adopted children's adjustment. ECAPO will contain a unique set of skill-building instructional components delivered via an innovative web delivery platform (IRISedOnline) that will enable adoption service providers to incorporate ECAPO into existing websites to augment and improve services for adoptive families. In Phase I, the first program module was developed and satisfactorily evaluated for feasibility. Phase II efforts will focus on developing and evaluating the complete program. When completed, ECAPO will be organized into 6 basic modules and 2 additional informational modules addressing specialized topics, and will provide over 10 hours of adoptive parent training as required by the Hague Convention of 2002. The program covers content that topics experts have identified as particularly salient to adoptive families: (1) Understanding adoption (issues of attachment, identity, race, culture, etc.); (2) Communication within the family about adoption-related issues (developed and evaluated in Phase I); (3) Communication with extended family, the outside world, and school about adoption-related issues; (4) Promoting adopted children's resilience in the family context; (5) Remedial parenting and counteracting risk in the adoptive context; and (6) Cultural competence in raising the transracially and/or transculturally adopted child. The two additional modules will cover (a) foster care adoptive parenting, and (b) information on adoptive parenting for blended families, siblings, special needs, kinship adoption. Six tasks will guide the development of the Phase II program: (1) convene a development team to draft a content outline and align content with instructional delivery, (2) conduct key informant interviews and facilitate focus groups, (3) produce Phase II program assets, (4) design and develop enhancements to the delivery web site, (5) upload the program to the website and conduct usability testing, and (6) enroll participants and evaluate program efficacy by conducting a large randomized controlled trial with 330 participants comparing outcomes from the intervention group to those of a control group. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The consistent and disproportionate rate of behavior problems and psychological maladjustment among adopted youth poses a significant public health concern. Experts say this concern can best be addressed by providing adoptive parents with the education and training they need to effectively deal with complex adoption-related issues. This project will create and conduct a randomized controlled trial of an online training resource that is accessible, empirically sound, and provides adoptive parents with needed knowledge and skills to mediate the effect of risk on their adopted children's development.