Characteristic Predictors of Parental Stress in Special Needs Children Adopted Out of the U.S. Foster Care System
Open Access
- Author:
- Ehrmann, Lois Ann Pessolano
- Graduate Program:
- Counselor Education
- Degree:
- Master of Architecture
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- March 01, 2007
- Committee Members:
- James Taylor Herbert, Committee Member
Karen Linn Bierman, Committee Member
Spencer Niles, Committee Member
Jerry G Trusty, Committee Member - Keywords:
- pareting stress
special needs
adoption - Abstract:
- ABSTRACT This study examined relationships between characteristics of children adopted from the U.S. foster care program and measures of parenting, personal, and marital stress in their adoptive parents. An innovative Internet based data collection platform was used by 81 parents from across the U.S. recruited by their children’s clinicians. Participants completed instruments related to demographic, social, emotional, and behavioral characteristics of their children along with self-report measures of parenting stress, marital stress, and personal mental health. Measures were also completed related to parent-child communication and parent-child relationship quality. As hypothesized bivariate analysis resulted in associations between aggressive-oppositional behavior, social competency, and hyperactivity-inattention behaviors with parent-child communication, relationship quality, parenting stress, and parental depression. The demographic predictor of total number of abuses children experienced prior to permanent adoption was correlated with parental depression and marital distress in parents. Measures of aggressive/oppositional behavior, social competence and hyperactivity/inattention contributed to 33% of the variance in the scores measuring parent-child communication. It appeared that social competency influenced parent-child communication in a unique way. Aggressive/oppositional behavior, social competence, and hyperactivity-inattention also influenced the quality of the parent-child relationship (14.5% of the variance) and parental depression (R square = .197). Earlier studies on the post adoption adjustment of children and stressors in their parents are discussed as well as implications for treatment and future research in the development of more effective strategies for working with this population.