The Inclusive Family Support Model: Facilitating Openness for Post-Adoptive Families

Open adoptions have increased over the past few decades, and although guidance for considering and creating open adoption agreements exist, one area of needed post-adoption support is helping adoptive birth/first families navigate open-adoption relationships after finalization. Adoption agencies have a responsibility to assist adoptive parents, who may have fears and concerns about openness, see the potential benefits rather than only the challenges. This article describes a practice model designed by one agency to help families navigate post-adoption openness. The Inclusive Family Support model is conceptualized through the theoretical perspectives of family systems theory, ambiguous loss and disenfranchised grief, and the transtheoretical model of change. We highlight the major dimensions of the model, how it will be implemented and evaluated at one agency, and discuss implications for practice and policy

Voluntary Placements in Child Welfare: A Comparative Analysis of State Statutes

Removing children from their families is a serious, and often traumatic, experience for children and youth, even if this process is a voluntary choice of the parents or caregivers. This exploratory study aimed to further the understanding of voluntary foster care placements, a topic on which there has been very little research and attention. For this content analysis, we analyzed the statutes of all 50 states and Washington D.C. We developed a coding rubric to record data on each statute, including factors such as definitions, timelines, and process for court involvement. Researcher memos were used to help identify themes across statutes, as well as unique cases. Findings suggest a wide degree of variation in how states regulate voluntary placement in foster care, with 11 states having no statutes at all, and states varying even on fundamental aspects of these placements such as parents maintaining legal custody and authority of their children. Several state\u27s statutes mention voluntary placements but provide no guidance at all on implementation, other states’ statutes provide a detailed description on processes including special considerations regarding access to treatment for children with disabilities. The lack of clarity in statutes on voluntary placements needs further attention by child welfare administrators and policy-makers, in order to ensure the on-going safety, permanency, and well-being of children in these voluntary arrangements. © 2018 Elsevier Lt

Korean Adoptees as Parents: Intergenerationality of Ethnic, Racial, and Adoption Socialization

Objective: Using a socialization framework, this study aimed to understand the intergenerational patterns of ethnic, racial, and adoption socialization practices. Background: Understanding the impact of ethnicity, race, and adoption is a lifelong process for transracially, transnationally adopted individuals. Few studies, however, have explored how adult adoptees socialize their children on ethnicity, race, and adoption and to what extent this socialization is informed by their own transracial, transnational adoption experiences. Method: On the basis of 51 interviews, we investigated adopted Korean Americans’ reappraisal of their ethnic, racial, and adoption socialization experiences growing up transracially and transnationally, as well as their current ethnic, racial, and adoption socialization practices with their children. Results: Despite the generally limited ethnic, racial, and adoption socialization from White adoptive parents, we found via thematic analysis that Korean adoptee parents used strategies such as reculturation with their children, birth family involvement, and emphasis in multiculturalism in response to the need for ethnic, racial, and adoption socialization in the next generation. Conclusion: These themes reflect the unique intergenerational transmission of ethnic heritage, racial experiences, and adoption history based on having grown up in transracial and transnational families of their own. Implications: Findings can inform evidence-based practice in working with adopted individuals and their families, particularly in addressing ethnic, racial, and adoption socialization practices

Voluntary Placements in Child Welfare: A Comparative Analysis of State Statutes

Removing children from their families is a serious, and often traumatic, experience for children and youth, even if this process is a voluntary choice of the parents or caregivers. This exploratory study aimed to further the understanding of voluntary foster care placements, a topic on which there has been very little research and attention. For this content analysis, we analyzed the statutes of all 50 states and Washington D.C. We developed a coding rubric to record data on each statute, including factors such as definitions, timelines, and process for court involvement. Researcher memos were used to help identify themes across statutes, as well as unique cases. Findings suggest a wide degree of variation in how states regulate voluntary placement in foster care, with 11 states having no statutes at all, and states varying even on fundamental aspects of these placements such as parents maintaining legal custody and authority of their children. Several state\u27s statutes mention voluntary placements but provide no guidance at all on implementation, other states\u27 statutes provide a detailed description on processes including special considerations regarding access to treatment for children with disabilities. The lack of clarity in statutes on voluntary placements needs further attention by child welfare administrators and policy-makers, in order to ensure the on-going safety, permanency, and well-being of children in these voluntary arrangements

Cooking Lessons

This work presents contemporary and historical views on Asian America and Pacific Islanders, conveyed through the voices of the men and women who lived these experiences over more than 150 years

Foreword & Introduction

Minnesota has one of the highest number of adopted Koreans, per capita, in the world, and yet there is nothing in our state s annals to document this. This book was conceived to recognize the 13,000 15,000 of us who have immigrated to Minnesota, and to celebrate our existence, experiences, and perspectives, which are as diverse as our faces. We are everyday people, yet unique. We are girls, boys, women, men, babies, teens, and adults; singles, partnered, married, gay, straight, and transgendered; sons and daughters, mothers and fathers. We are a living, breathing part of Minnesota history. This book has no agenda it is neither for nor against international adoption. We merely present the spectrum of our adopted community and how we have altered the face of Minnesota since the 1950s. Most important, we felt the urgent need to create this book as a resource not only for the present population, but also for future adoptees. After all, many of us do not have access to our Korean families and ancestry, and this book may provide the only touchstone many of us will ever have

ÒYou Can\u27t Run Into a Burning Building Without Getting Burned YourselfÓ: An Ecological Systems Perspective of Parents Choosing Out-Of-Home Care for an Intercountry Adopted Child

Increasingly, intercountry adopted children have special needs similar to children adopted from foster care in the United States. Out-of-home placement may be necessary when less restrictive services have not adequately addressed an adopted child\u27s needs. The experiences of 19 adoptive parents who chose to place their intercountry adopted child in out-of-home care due to their child\u27s disability were explored through qualitative interviews and family ecomaps. Themes emerging from interviews relate to adoptive parent definitions of adoption and disability, challenges identifying and accessing services, and the effects of placement on their family, within an ecological systems perspective. Findings show the need for service providers to better understand the impact of an intercountry adopted child\u27s disability and preadoption history on family adjustment, as well as to support parents through the out-of-home placement process