Sexual Minority and Heterosexual Parents Adopting Through the Child Welfare System: Challenges and Surprises During the Transition to Parenthood and Beyond

This session will address some of the unexpected challenges and surprises encountered by heterosexual, lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals and couples who adopt through the child welfare system. Data will be presented regarding (a) the challenges that foster-to-adopt parents encounter post-placement, including: legal insecurity in their parental role, disorganization within social service systems, inadequate support services, and complex relationships with birth parents; (b) unmet expectations that foster-to-adopt parents often encounter with regard to the types of children that are placed in their home (e.g., in terms of age, race, gender, and special needs); and (c) the experiences of parents that have adopted via child welfare in terms of contact and openness with birth family members. Engaged and informal discussion of the implications of these findings for families and clinicians, as well as Q&A, will follow these brief research presentations

(Re)visitando a la madre (des)naturalizada : búsquedas y encuentros entre personas adoptadas en Chile y sus madres de origen

Este artículo es resultado de los proyectos FONDECYT N°3170338 "Adopciones en Chile: la construcción de narrativas sobre los orígenes y la identidad", REDI170133 "Investigación Interdisciplinaria sobre Políticas Reproductivas y Parentales", Programa Coope-ración Internacional (PCI), ambos financiados por la Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica (CONICYT) de Chile; y del Proyecto I+D CSO2015-64551-C3-1-R "Del control de la natalidad a la ansiedad demográfica: comunicación, secreto y anonimato en las tecnologías reproductivas del siglo XXI", MINECO/FEDER.En este artículo se presentan algunos resultados de una investigación cualitativa que explora y analiza las narrativas de un grupo de personas adultas que fueron adoptadas en Chile, que han buscado sus orígenes y que han establecido contacto con sus madres de origen. En sus narrativas, las personas entrevistadas adhieren, tensionan y/o desafían los principios y discursos que conforman las políticas y prácticas adoptivas hegemónicas, resignificando de formas diversas su experiencia de adopción en el proceso de (re)construcción de sus identidades y de reorganización de sus relaciones de parentesco. Se discuten las tensiones y ambivalencias que se juegan en los procesos de búsquedas de orígenes y los desafíos asociados.This paper presents some results of a qualitative research that explores and analyzes the narratives of a group of adults who were adopted in Chile, and who have searched for their origins and made contact with their birth mothers. In their narratives, the people interviewed adhere to, strain, and/or challenge the principles and discourses that make up hegemonic adoption policies and practices, resignifying their experience of adoption in various ways, as they (re)build their identities and reorganize their kinship relationships. It discusses the tensions and ambivalences that play out in the search for origins and the challenges associated with it

Contact with birth family in intercountry adoptions: Comparing families headed by sexual minority and heterosexual parents

Contact between adoptive families and birth families in the context of intercountry adoption, as well as adoption by sexual minorities (e.g., lesbians and gay men), represent understudied topics. In the current study, we examine the extent and type of contact with birth family in intercountry adoptive families headed by heterosexual and sexual minority parents. Data were drawn from the Modern Adoptive Families project, a nationwide, non-random survey of adoptive parents\u27 beliefs and experiences that was conducted from 2012 to 2013. The current sample consisted of 479 families headed by heterosexual parents (H) and 38 families headed by sexual minority women (SM) whose oldest adopted child was younger than 18 years of age and who had been placed from another country. Although no family type difference was found in contact with birth family prior to or at the time of placement (H = 9.6%; SM = 13.2%), sexual minority respondents reported a higher level of contact with one or more members of their children”s birth families following adoptive placement than did heterosexual respondents (SM = 28.9%; H = 14.4%), as well as currently (SM = 21.1%; H 9.8%). They also reported more contact with their children”s birth mothers than did heterosexual parents, although no family type differences were found for contact with other birth family members. Policy and practice implications are discussed

Contact with birth family in adoptive families headed by lesbian, gay male, and heterosexual parents

In this study, we examined the extent and type of contact with birth family in adoptive families headed by sexual minority and heterosexual parents prior to or at the time of placement, following placement, and currently. Data were drawn from the Modern Adoptive Families project, a nationwide, non-random survey of adoptive parents\u27 beliefs and experiences that was conducted from 2012 to 2013. The current sample consisted of 671 families headed by heterosexual parents, 111 families headed by lesbian parents, and 98 families headed by gay male parents whose oldest adopted child was less than 18 years old and who was placed domestically either from the public child welfare system or from a private agency or independent adoption facilitator. For child welfare adoptions, sexual minority parents reported higher levels of contact and tended to have more positive relationships with birth family compared to heterosexual parents. Fewer differences by family type were found for private agency adoptions. Higher rates of contact and more positive relationships with birth family were found for private domestic placements compared to those from foster care. Secondary analyses suggest that family demographic and adoption placement differences between sexual minority- and heterosexual-parent families do not account for family type differences in contact with birth family. Policy and practice implications are discussed

The impact of COVID-19 on child welfare-involved families: Implications for parent–child reunification and child welfare professionals

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted children and parents involved in the child welfare system and the professionals working with these families. Using survey data collected August–September of 2020, this mixed-methods study examined the perspectives of 196 child welfare-involved professionals (77 attorneys, 99 caseworkers, and 20 therapists) in the United States about the impact of COVID-19 on parents of origin, children, foster parents, and child welfare professionals. Particular attention was paid to the implications of COVID-19 and associated challenges for parent–child contact and reunification. With respect to professional stresses, more than half of participants worried about their own personal safety and health amidst COVID-19, and more than three-quarters expressed concerns about the safety and well-being of child welfare-involved families. Participants, especially attorneys, expressed concerns about parent–child contact and disruptions to reunification. In-person parent–child visits had all but ceased during the early part of the pandemic, and participants identified barriers to effective virtual visits, including lack of foster parent oversight, technology issues, and children’s developmental stage and/or lack of engagement. Attorneys were especially critical of the cessation of in-person visits and viewed this as a serious threat to child-parent bonds and reunification. Participants, especially child welfare workers, voiced concerns about children’s mental health and educational outcomes amidst the pandemic. Findings have implications for attorneys, child welfare workers, and other practitioners who directly and indirectly interface with child welfare-involved families