The Psychology of Adoption

Recent empirical work has shown that adopted children are more vulnerable to a host of psychological and school-related problems compared to their non-adopted peers. The rate of referral of adopted children to mental-health facilities is far above what would be expected given their representation in the general population. However, our understanding of the basis of these problems remains unclear. In this work, David Brodzinsky, who has conducted one of the largest studies of adopted children, along with Marshall Schechter, a child psychiatrist, has brought together a group of leading researchers from various disciplines to explore the complex, interdisciplinary subject of adoption. Theoretical, empirical, clinical, and social policy issues offer new insights into the problems facing parents of adopted children and especially the children themselves. The book is a comprehensive study and will be of interest to child psychiatrists, developmental and clinical psychologists, social workers, and social service providers.

David M. Brodzinsky is Associate Professor, Developmental and Clinical Psychology, Rutgers University. Marshall D. Schechter is Professor Emeritus, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

PART I: THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE ON ADOPTION ADJUSTMENT: David M. Brodzinsky: A stress and coping model of adoption adjustment; Remi J. Cadoret: Biologic perspectives of adoptee adjustment; Paul M. Brinich: Adoption from the inside out: a psychoanalytic perspective; Marshall E. Schechter & Doris Bertocci: The meaning of the search; PART II: RESEARCH ON ADOPTION: Michael Bohman & Soren Sigvardsson: Outcomes in adoption: lessons from longitudinal studies; John Triseliotis &Malcolm Hill: Contrasting adoption, foster care and residential rearing; Kenneth Kaye: Acknowledgment or rejection of differences?; Janet L. Hoo pes: Adoption and identity formation; Harold D. Grotevant & Ruth G. McRoy: Adopted adolescents in residential treatment: the role of the family; Arnold R. Silverman &William Feigelman: Adjustment in interracial adoptees: an overview; Trudy Festinger: Adoption disruption: rates and correlates; PART III: CLINICAL ISSUES IN ADOPTION: Ann Hartman & Joan Laird: Family treatment after adoption: common themes; Christina Lindstrom & Judith Schaffer: Solution-focused therapy with adoptive families; Wells Goodrich, Carol S. Fullerton, Brian T. Yates, & Linda Beth Berman: The residential treatment of severely disturbed adolescent adoptees; PART IV: SOCIALPOLICY AND CASEBOOK ISSUES IN ADOPTION: Elizabeth S. Cole & Kathryn S. Donley: History, values, and placement policy issues in adoption; Anne B. Brodzinsky: Surrendering an infant for adoption: the birthmother experience; Anne Baran & Reuben Pannor: Open adoption; Andre P. Derdeyn: Foster parent adoption: thelegal framework; References; Author index; Subject index.