Both adoptive and birth mothers and fathers used more problem-focused than emotion-focused strategies. Personality factors, Neuroticism especially, were predictive of coping strategy use. Higher levels of Positive Reappraisal were associated with higher levels of SWB, whereas higher levels of Escape-Avoidance were associated with lower levels of SWB, but only for mothers. Results were consistent with a dispositional model of strategy use in that frequency of use was associated with personality characteristics, was consistent over time, and for different children in the same families. Future research should focus on the persistence of the associations between strategy use and well-being and whether they hold true at different stages of the lifespan when coping contexts may change quite dramatically.

Psychometric properties are described for an inventory that measures the daily rewards and worries that parents experience as their sons and daughters transition to adulthood. In a series of 4 studies involving 847 respondents, we explored and confirmed the factor structure of the Transition Daily Rewards and Worries Questionnaire (TDRWQ) in a sample that included transitioning individuals with and without disabilities. The final questionnaire includes 28 items in 4 factors: Positive Future Orientation, Community Resources, Financial Independence, and Family Relations. Evidence of acceptable internal and test- retest reliability is presented, as is discriminant and convergent validity. The TDRWQ should enhance the quantitative approach to understanding parental reactions as sons and daughters make the transition to adulthood.

This report extends by an additional 6 years the longitudinal research of Glidden and Schoolcraft, who found that adoptive mothers of children with intellectual disabilities displayed low depression at the initial time of adoption and thereafter, whereas birth mothers reported significantly higher levels when their children were first diagnosed, but not at later times. Depression remained low during the current time of measurement, but mothers who had relatively high depression earlier still reported higher depression even after 17 years. Individual differences were especially consistent for adoptive mothers during the latest 6‐year period, perhaps reflecting the endogenous nature of their depression.

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