Helping Parents and Adoptees Through the Adoption Process Using Group Work

2012 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 433-440 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew T. Watson ◽  
Nelsie M. Stern ◽  
Thomas W. Foster
Keyword(s):  
Identity Development ◽  
Group Work ◽  
Adoption Process ◽  
Adopted Children ◽  
Group Interventions ◽  
Family Ties ◽  
Family Unit ◽  
Loss And Grief ◽  
Counseling Group ◽  
Positive Identity

While adoption can build strong family ties, many challenges can also develop both during and after the adoption process. Parent/Parents and adopted children face a variety of challenges within the newly formed family unit. Parents struggle with the adoption process, while adoptees from various backgrounds often wrestle with identity development and feelings of loss and grief throughout their life resulting from relinquishment. Our purpose here is to offer a solution in the form of two group interventions: a prevention-based group to help parent/parents navigate effectively through the adoption process and a counseling group aimed at helping adopted adolescents develop a positive identity.

‘On some precipice in a dream’: Representations of Guilt in Contemporary Young Adult Gay and Lesbian Fiction

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 184-194
Author(s):  
Kate Norbury
Keyword(s):  
Young Adult ◽  
Identity Development ◽  
Gay And Lesbian ◽  
Early Age ◽  
Survivor Guilt ◽  
Sexual Identities ◽  
Best Friend ◽  
Positive Identity ◽  
The Family ◽  
Depressive Episodes

This article explores the representation of guilt in six recent young adult novels, in which it is suggested that teen protagonists still experience guilt in relation to their emerging non-normative sexual identities. The experience of guilt may take several different forms, but all dealt with here are characterised by guilt without agency – that is, the protagonist has not deliberately said or done anything to cause harm to another. In a first pair of novels, guilt is depicted as a consequence of internalised homophobia, with which protagonists must at least partly identify. In a second group, protagonists seem to experience a form of separation guilt from an early age because they fail to conform to the norms of the family. Certain events external to the teen protagonist, and for which they cannot be held responsible, then trigger serious depressive episodes, which jeopardise the protagonist's positive identity development. Finally, characters are depicted as experiencing a form of survivor guilt. A gay protagonist survives the events of 9/11 but endures a breakdown, and, in a second novel, a lesbian protagonist narrates her coming to terms with the death of her best friend.

scholarly journals THE PORTRAYAL OF A KOREAN ADOPTEE’S EXPERIENCE IN NICOLE CHUNG’S ALL YOU CAN EVER KNOW: A MEMOIR OF ADOPTION

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 28
Author(s):  
Rizqia Nuur Maziyya
Keyword(s):  
Identity Development ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Transnational Migration ◽  
Adopted Children ◽  
Transnational Adoption ◽  
Western Countries ◽  
White American ◽  
Korean Adoptees ◽  
Birth Country ◽  
Save The Children

Transnational adoption has become one of the factors of transnational migration to Western countries, including America. Transnational adoption can be viewed from at least two perspectives, South Korea as the origin country and America as the targeted country. From the birth country, transnational adoption becomes a way to help the children from poverty, have a better future, and contribute to the birth country when they return. From the adoption-targeted country, this adoption is a humanitarian way to save the children from poverty, primitive way of life, and God’s blessing. One of the countries which regularly “send” the children to Western countries is South Korea. The children become Korean adoptees and mostly living in white American neighborhoods. Living with white Americans has shaped the Korean adoptees’ behavior and way of thinking same as Americans. Korean adoptees face various problems, starting from adjusting themselves in new environment, finding their cultural roots and identity, and struggling to find their biological parents. This study employed Phinnes’ ethnic identity development to make sense of the experience of a Korean adoptee called Nicole Chung in her memoir, All You Can Ever Know: A Memoir of Adoption. Through the discussion, it can be understood how transnational adoption programs become national agenda and big business field since it is not expensive to have children from other countries. There is also an assumption that the children will have better and happier life when they are taken to America and other western countries. However, throughout their life as adopted children in America, the children also find difficulties, especially in finding their identity.

scholarly journals The role of ethnic identity in children’s selective trust in others

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyla P. McDonald
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
Identity Development ◽  
Social Preference ◽  
Eyewitness Testimony ◽  
Adopted Children ◽  
Group Status ◽  
White Children ◽  
Selective Learning ◽  
Selective Trust ◽  
Chinese Canadian

The present research examined the roles of informant ethnicity and early ethnic identity development in guiding children’s selective trust across scenarios, comparing White and Chinese Canadian children with children adopted from China by White parents. Experiments 1 and 2 investigated children’s selective learning from two contrasting sources that differed in race (White versus Chinese) and spoken accent (native versus foreign accent). Experiment 1 (White experimenter) indicated that the White children preferred to learn from White informants when race was the only cue to ethnic group status; no preference was observed when race was pitted against accent. The Chinese and adopted children showed no learning preference. Children’s social preference for same-race peers was associated with a preference to learn from same-race informants. Experiment 2 (Chinese experimenter) had similar findings, except that there was no relationship between children’s racial preference and selective learning. Experiment 3 explored children’s selective credulity toward misinformation from a single source. The Chinese children were credulous toward both Chinese and White (native- or foreign-accented) informants but the White and adopted children were not credulous or skeptical, regardless of the informant’s race and accent. The present findings contribute to our understanding of how ethnic intergroup attitudes develop in children of different ethnic and social-status backgrounds, including minority-status children that reside with majority-status parents, and provide practical implications for real-world issues related to children’s eyewitness testimony in forensic contexts.

Adopters' Relationships with Their Adopted Children from Adolescence to Early Adulthood

1996 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 35-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Howe
Keyword(s):  
Early Adulthood ◽  
Distinct Pattern ◽  
Expert Advice ◽  
Adoption Process ◽  
Adopted Children ◽  
Early Experiences ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Parent Child Relationships

Problematic behaviour in adopted teenage children often stems from their very early experiences. In examining the evolution of the relationship between parents and their adopted children from adolescence to early adulthood David Howe identifies three types of adoption, each associated with a distinct pattern of pre-placement care. On the basis of this classification the quality of parent-child relationships is explored at two key stages: when the adopted person is 16 and over 23. In addition, the adopters interviewed in Howe's study provided their own long-term views of the adoption process when looking back. Those who managed to survive the most stressful years often reported much more relaxed, reciprocal relationships with their grown-up children. But they also underlined the importance of expert advice and support to help see them through the worst times. Conclusion

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document