African American adoptions: an exploratory study of post-adoption outcomes among African American adoptive families who have adopted children from African American adoption agencies

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dc.contributor.advisorMcRoy, Ruth G.en
dc.creatorSmith-McKeever, Thelma Chedgzseyen
dc.date.accessioned2008-08-28T21:40:22Zen
dc.date.accessioned2017-05-11T22:16:03Z
dc.date.available2008-08-28T21:40:22Zen
dc.date.available2017-05-11T22:16:03Z
dc.date.issued2002en
dc.descriptiontexten
dc.description.abstractThe parents of 83 African American special-needs children who adopted through two private African American adoption agencies in California were surveyed regarding their post-adoption adjustment, satisfaction with their adoptions, parenting stress and children’s behavior. Parenting stress levels were measured using the Parenting Stress Inventory (Abidin, 1986) and child’s behavior was measured using the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach & Edelbrock, 1983). Comparisons were made of outcomes between single and two-parent adoptive families and infant and older child adoptive families. The sample was comprised of 24 single-parent and 58 two-parent x adoptive families. No significant differences were found in outcomes for younger child adopters (36 months or less at the time of adoption) versus those who adopted older children (37 months or more at the time of adoption) child adopters. Though children who were adopted before the age of three had lower CBCL total problem, internalizing and externalizing scores when compared to children who were adopted after the age of three, the parents of children who were adopted before the age of three expressed less overall satisfaction with their adoptions than did the parents of children adopted after the age of three. Children of single adoptive parents had significantly higher (p = .020) CBCL externalizing scores than did children in two-parent families. However, they were not more likely to have externalizing scores in the clinical range. No other significant differences in outcomes among single and two-parent adoptive families were found. Results also indicated that, though the differences were not statistically significant, single adoptive parents had lower Parenting Stress Inventory total scores than did married adoptive parents. This sample of African American adoptive families was unique in that they very much mirrored the demographic profile of White private agency adopters. As with White private agency adopters, the African American adoptive parents in the sample were highly educated, with 95% of mothers and 86.6% of fathers having graduated from college. They tended to work in full-time professional occupations, earned high yearly gross incomes (mean = $67,124) and were most likely (42.7%) to cite infertility as their primary motivation to adopt. While the sample had similar demographic backgrounds to White private agency adopters, they differed in that the African American adoptive families in this sample were most likely to adopt children who were older (mean age at adoption = 22.16 months for sample vs. 1 month for Whites) and in child welfare custody (62.2%).
dc.description.departmentSocial Worken
dc.format.mediumelectronicen
dc.identifierb57230997en
dc.identifier.oclc56975126en
dc.identifier.proqst3088570en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2152/943en
dc.language.isoengen
dc.rightsCopyright is held by the author. Presentation of this material on the Libraries' web site by University Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin was made possible under a limited license grant from the author who has retained all copyrights in the works.en
dc.subject.lcshAdoption--United Statesen
dc.subject.lcshAfrican American childrenen
dc.subject.lcshAdoption agencies--United Statesen
dc.titleAfrican American adoptions: an exploratory study of post-adoption outcomes among African American adoptive families who have adopted children from African American adoption agenciesen
dc.type.genreThesisen

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