Demographic and evolutionary significance of adoption and fosterage

收养和寄养是在美国和地球仪的不同背景下出现的改变生活的事件。收养和寄养儿童的福利是否以及以何种方式在纳塔尔环境之外得到改善，这是一个备受争议的问题。影响被收养和寄养儿童福利的重要因素包括：导致收养和寄养的环境;被收养和寄养儿童与亲生儿童在活动和待遇方面的差异;社会对收养和寄养的接受程度与耻辱感。了解这些因素如何相互作用，以促进或抑制成功的结果，收养和寄养儿童是至关重要的定制家庭计划，以适应个人的需要，许多儿童主要是由非亲生父母在美国。这项研究将在美拉尼西亚岛国瓦努阿图进行，在那里收养和寄养是司空见惯的，并出现在类似于美国少数民族人口收养和寄养的背景下。该研究团队，包括一名博士后学者，两名瓦努阿图研究生和一个训练有素的国际专业人员团队，将使用进化框架调查收养和寄养的原因和后果，该框架旨在了解收养和寄养如何有助于家庭成功。研究人员将使用一系列不同的方法，利用瓦努阿图这些做法的显着差异来评估哪些特定因素或因素组最能预测儿童结果的差异。具体来说，研究人员将使用问卷调查，访谈，饮食和活动回忆评估，以及健康的人体测量来描述收养和寄养的情况，并将这些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因素如何影响收养和寄养儿童的福利变化，为收养和寄养家庭提供量身定制的支持。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.