The transition to adoptive parenthood: A pilot study of parents adopting in Ontario, Canada

McKay, Katherine; Ross, Lori E.

doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2009.12.007

Cited by 38 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Although adoption research has been criticized for its past dependence on adopted child to non-adopted child adjustment comparisons, there may be some merit in research comparing adoptive parents to biological parents, specifically in respect to their support needs. In most areas, it would appear that virtually all of the parenting support services are (implicitly at least) targeted toward biological parents (McKay & Ross, 2010). However, it is clear that the parenting experiences of biological and adoptive parents may be very different, and by extension, so might their primary concerns and support needs.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Adaptation to Parenthood During the Post-Adoption Period: A Review of the Literature

2010

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Adaptation to Parenthood During the Post-Adoption Period: A Review of the Literature

2010

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“…For example, adoptive and biological families may differ from one another in ways other than their adoption status, and such differences may explain why adoptive parents were found to be less mind-minded than biological parents in Study 1. Although the incidence of post-adoption depression is similar to that of postnatal depression (Foli, South, Lim, & Hebdon, 2012;O'Hara & Swain, 1996;Vesga-Lopez et al, 2008), research has suggested that adoptive parents face unique obstacles to parenthood in comparison to biological parents: difficulties with infertility (Daniluk & Hurtig-Mitchell, 2003), fear and anxiety associated with new responsibilities and lack of social support (McKay & Ross, 2010), and unrealistic expectations for their children and of themselves as new parents (Foli, 2010;Foli et al, 2012). Study 2 assessed parents' depression and anxiety and their representations of children and childrearing to explore whether differences in these factors between adoption and biological parents could explain the observed group difference in mind-mindedness.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mind-mindedness in parents of looked-after children.

Fishburn¹,

Meins²,

Greenhow³

et al. 2017

Developmental Psychology

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The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Mind-mindedness in Looked After Children AbstractThe studies reported here aimed to test the proposal that mind-mindedness is a quality of personal relationships by assessing mind-mindedness in parent-child dyads where the relationship has not spanned the child's life or where the relationship has been judged dysfunctional. Studies 1 and 2 investigated differences in mind-mindedness between adoptive parents (ns 89, 36) and biological parents from the general population (ns 54, 114). Both studies found lower mind-mindedness in adoptive compared with biological parents. Study 2's results showed that this group difference was independent of parental mental health and could not fully be explained in terms of children's behavioral difficulties. Study 3 investigated differences in mind-mindedness in foster carers (n=122), biological parents whose children were subject to a child protection plan (n=172), and a community sample of biological parents (n=128). The level of mind-mindedness in foster carers and parents who were involved with child protection services was identical and lower than that in the community sample; children's behavioral difficulties could not account for the difference between the two groups of biological parents. In all three studies, non-biological carers' tendency to describe their children with reference to pre-adoption or placement experiences was negatively related to mind-mindedness. These findings are in line with mind-mindedness being a relational construct.Key words: mind-mindedness; adoption; fostering; behavioral difficulties; child protection 2 Mind-mindedness in Looked After Children Mind-Mindedness in Parents of Looked After ChildrenMind-mindedness (Meins, 1997) indexes caregivers' attunement to their children's mental and emotional states. In infancy, mind-mindedness is assessed from caregivers' tendency to comment in an appropriate manner on their infants' thoughts or feelings (Meins, Fernyhough, Fradley, & Tuckey, 2001;Meins et al., 2012) or from caregivers' meaningful interpretations of their infants' early non-word vocalizations (Meins, 1998). In children beyond infancy, mind-mindedness is assessed in terms of parents' tendency spontaneously to focus on mental characteristics when given an open-ended invitation to describe their child (Meins, Fernyhough, Russell, & Clark-Carter, 1998).A growing body of research has shown that both the infant observational and preschool describe-your-child measures of mind-mindedness relate to various aspects of child...

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“…The continuum of experiences of new adoptive parents was supported in qualitative findings based on interviews with parents (McKay & Ross, 2010). Investigators identified the meta-themes of challenges and facilitators, individualized factors that interact with the other.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Post-adoption depression: Parental classes of depressive symptoms across time

Foli

South

Lim

et al. 2016

Journal of Affective Disorders

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Background Approximately 10%-15% of birth mothers and fathers experience postpartum depression, but reports of depressive symptoms in adoptive parents are more variable. Findings from investigators range from 10%-32%, which may mask the experiences of distinct groups of adoptive parents from pre-to post-placement of a child. Methods We performed latent class growth analysis using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression scores of 129 primarily heterosexual, adoptive parents (50% females) for three time points: 4-6 weeks pre-placement of the child, 4-6 weeks post-placement, and 5-6 months post-placement. Mixed effects models by parent depressive trajectories were also conducted for three types of variables: interpersonal, psychological symptoms, and life orientation. Results Five classes of depressive symptom trajectories were found. The majority of parents (71%) belonged to a class with low levels of depressive symptoms across time. However, two classes of parents were above the threshold for depressive symptoms at placement, and three classes of parents were above the threshold at 6 months post-placement. The majority of interpersonal, psychological symptom, and life orientation variables were significant across classes and by time. Limitations The homogeneity of the sample calls for replication of study findings. Conclusions An explanation for inconsistencies in the range of adoptive parent depressive symptoms may be explained by different subgroups of parents who vary by their trajectory of depressive symptoms before and after placement of the child. Adoption and mental health professionals should be aware that select adoptive parents may struggle pre-and post-placement of a child.

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The transition to adoptive parenthood: A pilot study of parents adopting in Ontario, Canada

Cited by 38 publications

References 26 publications

Adaptation to Parenthood During the Post-Adoption Period: A Review of the Literature

Adaptation to Parenthood During the Post-Adoption Period: A Review of the Literature

Mind-mindedness in parents of looked-after children.

Post-adoption depression: Parental classes of depressive symptoms across time

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