1st Edition
The Routledge Handbook of Adoption
Adoption is practiced globally yielding a multidimensional area of study that cannot be characterized by a single movement or discipline. This handbook provides a central source of contemporary scholarship from a variety of disciplines with an international perspective and uses a multifaceted and interdisciplinary approach to ground adoption practices and activities in scientific research. Perspectives of birth/first parents, adoptive parents, and adopted persons are brought forth through a range of disciplinary and theoretical lenses.
Beginning with background and context of adoption, including sociocultural and political contexts, the handbook then addresses the diversity of adoptive families in terms of family forms, attitudes about adoption, and characteristics of adopted children. Next, research examining the lived experience of adoption for birth parents, adoptive parents, and adopted individuals is presented. A variety of outcomes for internationally and domestically adopted children and adoptive families is then discussed and the handbook concludes by addressing the development, training, and implementation of adoption competent clinical practice.
With cutting-edge research from top international scholars in a diversity of fields, The Routledge Handbook of Adoption should be considered essential reading for students, researchers, and practitioners across the fields of social work, sociology, psychology, medicine, family science, education, and demography.
Interviews with chapter authors can be accessed as podcasts (https://anchor.fm/emily-helder) or as videos (https://bit.ly/2FIoi0a).
Part I: Adoption in context
1. Historical and contemporary contexts of US adoption: an overview
Elisha Marr, Emily Helder, and Gretchen Miller Wrobel
2. US adoption by the numbers
Rose M. Kreider
3. An economic perspective on ethics in adoption policy
Mary Eschelbach Hansen
4. Domestic adoption in Ethiopia
Sebilu Bodja and Kristi Gleason
5. Intersection of information science and crisis pregnancy decision-making
Rachael Clemens
6. Respecting children’s relationships and identities in adoption
Elsbeth Neil and Mary Beek
7. The Early Growth and Development Study: using an adoption design to understand family influences and child development
Amy L. Whitesel, Andrew Dismukes, Dorothy White, Sally Guyer, Jody M. Ganiban, Leslie D. Leve, and Jenae M. Neiderhiser
Part II: Diversity in adoption
8. Unique challenges and strengths for families formed through international adoption
Marta Reinoso Bernuz
9. A critical adoption studies and Asian Americanist integrative perspective on the psychology of Korean adoption
Adam Y. Kim and Richard M. Lee
10. A nationally representative comparison of Black and White adoptive parents of Black adoptees
Elizabeth Raleigh and Rose M. Kreider
11. Racial and gender preferences among potential adoptive parents
Kathryn A. Sweeney
12. Adoptive families headed by LGBTQ parents.
Rachel H. Farr and Cassandra P. Vázquez
13. Post-institutionalized adopted children: effects of prolonged institutionalization and adoption at an older age
Megan M. Julian
14. Adoptees with disabilities or medically involved children: a multidisciplinary approach for preparing parents, assessing the child, and supporting successful family formation
Dana E. Johnson, Judith Eckerle, Megan Bresnahan, and Maria Kroupina
15. Adoption in the context of natural disaster
Peter Selman
Part III: Lived experience
16. Birth mothers’ options counseling and relinquishment experiences
Elissa E. Madden, Donna M. Aguiniga, and Scott Ryan
17. Transracial adoptees: the rewards and challenges of searching for their birth families
Danielle Godon-Decoteau and Patricia Ramsey
18. Communication about adoption in families
Lindsey J. Thomas and Kristina M. Scharp
19. Open adoption
Harold D. Grotevant
20. How adoptive parents think about their role as parents
Albert Y.H. Lo and Krystal K. Cashen
21. Religiosity and adoption
Emily Helder and Elisha Marr
22. Adoptive microaggressions: historical foundations, current research, and practical implications
Karin Garber
23. Maltreatment of adoptees in adoptive homes
Jessica A.K. Matthews
Part IV: Outcomes
24. Speech and language development in adopted children
Sharon L. Glennen
25. Behavioral and emotional adjustment in adoptees
Eveliina Holmgren, Hanna Raaska, Marko Elovainio, and Helena Lapenleimu
26. The neurobiological embedding of early social deprivation in children exposed to institutional rearing
Rebecca Lipschutz and Johanna Bick
27. Post-adoption short- and long-term social adaptation and competence of internationally adopted children
Tony Xing Tan, Yanhong Liu, and Cherry Smith
28. Academic performance and school adjustment of internationally adopted children in Norway.
Monica Dalen and Steinar Theie
29. Parenting stress in adoptive families
Marta Santos-Nunes, Isabel Narciso, and Salomé Vieira-Santos
30. Adoption instability, adoption breakdown
Jesús Palacios
Part V: Adoption Competency
31. Adoption competent clinical practice
Anne J. Atkinson
32. Training for Adoption Competency curriculum
Debbie Riley and Ellen Singer
33. Awareness of adoption at school
Francine Fishman
34. Post-adoption services: needs and adoption type.
Darcey H. Merritt, Rachel D. Ludeke
35. Adoption-specific curricula in higher education
Bibiana Koh, JaeRan Kim, and Ruth McRoy
Biography
Gretchen Miller Wrobel, Ph.D., is the University Professor of Psychology at Bethel University, USA and co-investigator on the Minnesota-Texas Adoption Research Project. Dr. Wrobel’s research interests include information seeking related to curiosity about one’s adoption and adoptive family communication. She is past editor of Adoption Quarterly.
Emily Helder, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Calvin University, USA. Dr. Helder is a clinical neuropsychologist whose research and training have focused on the impact of early experience on later development, language, and the experience of abuse, neglect, and early deprivation.
Elisha Marr, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of Gender Studies at Calvin University, USA. Dr. Marr’s research on transracial adoption includes identifying trends in adoption rates, experiences of transracial adoptees and their adoptive parents, and racial preferences of adoptive parents. More recently, Marr has expanded to exploring motivations to adopt.
