Adoptive Families Project

描述(申请人提供)：拟议研究的目标是研究国际收养(IA)儿童及其家庭的适应结果。目前的研究表明，IA儿童可能存在发育、医学和行为困难的风险。儿童和家庭因素对结果的交互影响一直未得到充分研究。该项目建议通过养父母将在四个时间点完成的一系列书面调查来研究国际收养中的家庭和儿童适应情况。家庭是通过专门从事国际收养的机构招募的。时间0的数据是在家庭第一次旅行去见他们未来的孩子之前收集的。这些问题集中在收养前的家庭适应，包括婚姻满意度、支持性家庭和友谊网络、社区参与、家庭结构和人口统计，以及父母的心理症状。此外，第一个评估包括关于收养动机和期望、收养前准备以及关于未来收养儿童的信息的问题。随后的评估将在安置后6个月、12个月和24个月进行。这些调查的问题将包括养育痛苦、婚姻满意度、健康、发展和领养孩子的行为的指数，以及父母感到他们的希望和期望得到满足的程度。该项目的具体目标如下：1)检查收养家庭的收养前特征及其与儿童特征的关系；2)测试儿童收养前特征(如安置时的年龄、原籍国)与家庭和生态变量相互作用的影响交易模型，以预测收养后的结果；3)确定潜在的结果中介因素；4)确定与儿童和家庭适应结果的个人和群体差异有关的潜在结果调节因素。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of the proposed research is to study the adjustment outcomes of internationally adopted (IA) children and their families. Current research indicates that IA children may be at risk for developmental, medical, and behavioral difficulties. The reciprocal influences of child and family factors on outcomes have been understudied. This project proposes to study family and child adjustment in international adoption through a series of written surveys that adoptive parents will complete at four time points. Families have been recruited through agencies specializing in international adoptions. Time 0 data are collected just prior to the time that families first travel to meet their perspective child. These questions focus on pre-adoptive family adaptation, including marital satisfaction, supportive family and friendship networks, community involvement, family structure and demographics, and parent psychological symptoms. Additionally, the first assessment includes questions about motivations and expectations for adoption, pre-adoption preparation, and information about the prospective adopted child. Subsequent assessments will be conducted at 6, 12, and 24 months post placement. Questions on these surveys will include indices of parenting distress, marital satisfaction, health, development, and behavior of the adopted child, and the degree to which parents felt their hopes and expectations have been met. The specific aims of the project are as follows: 1) to examine the pre-adoptive characteristics of adopting families and their relationships to child characteristics; 2) to test a transactional model of influence in which pre-adoptive characteristics of children (e.g., age at placement, country of origin) interact with family and ecological variables to predict post-adoptive outcomes; 3) to identify potential mediators of outcome and 4) to identify potential outcome moderators associated with individual and group differences in adjustment outcomes for children and families.