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Anales de Pediatria (Barcelona, Spain :... May 2015
Topics: Adoption; Child; Humans; Internationality; Spain
PubMed: 25704273
DOI: 10.1016/j.anpedi.2015.01.007 -
Health Services Research Feb 2023The objective of this study is to examine racial variation in receipt of counseling and referral for pregnancy options (abortion, adoption, and parenting) following...
OBJECTIVE
The objective of this study is to examine racial variation in receipt of counseling and referral for pregnancy options (abortion, adoption, and parenting) following pregnancy confirmation. Equitable offering of such information is a professional and ethical obligation and an opportunity to prevent racial disparities in maternal and child health.
DATA SOURCE
Primary data from patients at southern United States publicly funded family planning clinics, October 2018-June 2019.
STUDY DESIGN
Patients at 14 clinics completed a survey about their experiences with pregnancy options counseling and referral following a positive pregnancy test. The primary predictor variable was patients' self-reported racial identity. Outcomes included discussion of pregnancy options, referral for those options, and for support services.
DATA COLLECTION
Data from eligible patients with non-missing information for key variables (n = 313) were analyzed using descriptive statistics, χ tests, and multivariable logistic regression.
PRINCIPAL FINDINGS
Patients were largely Black (58%), uninsured (64%), and 18-29 years of age (80%). Intention to continue pregnancy and receipt of prenatal care referral did not differ significantly among Black as compared to non-Black patients. However, Black patients had a higher likelihood of wanting an abortion or adoption referral and not receiving one (abortion: marginal effect [ME] = 7.68%, p = 0.037; adjusted ME [aME] = 9.02%, p = 0.015; adoption: ME = 7.06%, p = 0.031; aME = 8.42%, p = 0.011). Black patients intending to end their pregnancies had a lower probability of receiving an abortion referral than non-Black patients (ME = -22.37%, p = 0.004; aME = -19.69%, p = 0.023). In the fully adjusted model, Black patients also had a higher probability of wanting access to care resources (including transportation, childcare, and financial support) and not receiving them (aME = 5.38%, p = 0.019).
CONCLUSIONS
Clinical interactions surrounding pregnancy confirmation provide critical opportunities to discuss options, coordinate care, and mitigate risk, yet are susceptible to systemic bias. These findings add to limited evidence around pregnancy counseling and referral disparities. Ongoing assessment of pregnancy counseling and referral disparities can provide insight into organizational strengths or the potential to increase structural equity.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Child; Female; Humans; Pregnancy; Young Adult; Abortion, Induced; Adoption; Child Health; Counseling; Healthcare Disparities; Parenting; Prenatal Care; Racial Groups; Referral and Consultation; United States; Black or African American
PubMed: 36068681
DOI: 10.1111/1475-6773.14049 -
Archives of Disease in Childhood Jan 2020To explore social workers' and medical advisors' accounts of genetic testing in adoption.
OBJECTIVE
To explore social workers' and medical advisors' accounts of genetic testing in adoption.
METHODS
A qualitative study using semi-structured interviews to gather in-depth accounts of retrospective cases. Data were analysed thematically to identify professionals' knowledge and expectations.
RESULTS
Twenty professionals working in adoption services (including 8 medical advisors and 12 social workers) participated in this study. Social workers adopted an essentialist (single-gene) model to discuss genetic testing in relation to past cases. They assumed that testing was a generic procedure for detecting the presence or absence of a specific aetiology, the results of which were believed to be definitive and mutually exclusive. By contrast, medical advisors were circumspect and agnostic about the meaning of results, especially in relation to chromosomal microarray testing. Whereas social workers believed that genetic testing provided clarity in assessment and therefore assisted adoption, medical advisors emphasised the uncertainties of testing and the possibility that prospective adopters might be misled. Medical advisors also reported inappropriate requests to test children where there was a family history of a genetic condition, or to confirm or exclude a diagnosis of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder in children presenting with non-specific dysmorphic features.
CONCLUSION
Recent advances in genetic technologies are changing the ways in which professionals understand and tolerate uncertainty in adoption. Social workers and medical advisors have different understandings and expectations about the clinical utility of genetic testing. These findings have implications for social work training about genetic testing and enabling effective communication between professional groups.
Topics: Adoption; Communication; Female; Genetic Testing; Humans; Interviews as Topic; Male; Pediatricians; Retrospective Studies; Social Workers; Wales
PubMed: 31296598
DOI: 10.1136/archdischild-2019-316911 -
The Early Growth and Development Study: A Dual-Family Adoption Study from Birth Through Adolescence.Twin Research and Human Genetics : the... Dec 2019The Early Growth and Development Study (EGDS) is a prospective adoption study of birth parents, adoptive parents and adopted children (n = 561 adoptees). The original...
The Early Growth and Development Study (EGDS) is a prospective adoption study of birth parents, adoptive parents and adopted children (n = 561 adoptees). The original sample has been expanded to include siblings of the EGDS adoptees who were reared by the birth mother and assessed beginning at age 7 years (n = 217 biological children), and additional siblings in both the birth and adoptive family homes, recruited when the adoptees were 8-15 years old (n = 823). The overall study aims are to examine how family, peer and contextual processes affect child and adolescent adjustment, and to examine their interplay (mediation, moderation) with genetic influences. Adoptive and birth parents were originally recruited through adoption agencies located throughout the USA following the birth of a child. Assessments are ongoing and occurred in 9 month's intervals until the adoptees turned 3 years of age, and in 1 to 2 year intervals thereafter through age 15. Data collection includes the following primary constructs: child temperament, behavior problems, mental health, peer relations, executive functioning, school performance and health; birth and adoptive parent personality characteristics, mental health, health, context, substance use, parenting and marital relations; and the prenatal environment. Findings highlight the power of the adoption design to detect environmental influences on child development and provide evidence of complex interactions and correlations between genetic, prenatal environmental and postnatal environmental influences on a range of child outcomes. The study sample, procedures and an overview of findings are summarized and ongoing assessment activities are described.
Topics: Adolescent; Adolescent Development; Adoption; Child; Child Development; Child, Preschool; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Humans; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Male; Twins
PubMed: 31526412
DOI: 10.1017/thg.2019.66 -
Journal of Psychiatry & Neuroscience :... May 1994This paper reviews key studies that have addressed genetic and neurobiological aspects in attention deficit hyperactive disorder. Genetic studies can be divided into... (Review)
Review
This paper reviews key studies that have addressed genetic and neurobiological aspects in attention deficit hyperactive disorder. Genetic studies can be divided into three distinct types: twin, adoption, and family studies. Evidence for a particular mode of inheritance and the possible specific genetic abnormalities are also explored. There is strong evidence of genetic involvement in this condition, although a clear-cut mode of inheritance and specific genetic abnormalities are yet to be determined. Neurobiological aspects such as the neuroanatomical and neurochemical evidence of various neurotransmitter system involvement is explored. Frontal lobe and dopamine and norepinephrine neurotransmitter systems appear to be involved in attention deficit hyperactive disorder.
Topics: Adoption; Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity; Child; Comorbidity; Diseases in Twins; Humans; Models, Genetic; Risk Factors; Social Environment; Synaptic Transmission; Twins, Dizygotic; Twins, Monozygotic
PubMed: 8031743
DOI: No ID Found -
American Journal of Psychoanalysis Dec 2020As we know, Sándor Ferenczi compared the analytic and adoptive relationships as the psychoanalyst exercises a parental role to some extent. The author notes that a...
As we know, Sándor Ferenczi compared the analytic and adoptive relationships as the psychoanalyst exercises a parental role to some extent. The author notes that a commonality between the adoptive relationship and the analytic one is that if the parental couple is burdened with painful counter-transferential experiences and feelings that have not been worked through, these can pose a danger for the strength of the newly developing parental relationship. In the analytic situation the analyst's position implies the risk of conflict with the parental internal objects resulting from the primary introjections, especially if the original environment was abusive or severely neglectful. Similarly, the adoptive family is often burdened with revengeful and competitive aggressiveness of their own introjected parental objects, having as a main task to keep unified the pre-adoptive autobiographical memories that were dissociated and interrupted. In such cases it is very important to give the adoptive parents help so as to cope with their difficult "countertransference," supporting them to reduce their sense of guilt and unsuitability to nurse their children, especially if the adoptive parents feel guilty because of their own infertility. In this paper the author describes two cases concerning both situations, emphasising the clinical risks and the evolutionary potentialities.
Topics: Adolescent; Adoption; Adult Survivors of Child Abuse; Countertransference; Female; Humans; Middle Aged; Parent-Child Relations; Professional-Patient Relations; Psychoanalytic Therapy
PubMed: 33199744
DOI: 10.1057/s11231-020-09264-w -
Cancer Sep 2015To the authors' knowledge, little is known regarding the rate at which cancer survivors successfully adopt a child or about their experiences negotiating a costly, and...
BACKGROUND
To the authors' knowledge, little is known regarding the rate at which cancer survivors successfully adopt a child or about their experiences negotiating a costly, and perhaps discriminatory, process regarding the prospective parent's health history. The current study describes the results of a learning activity in which nurses contacted an adoption agency to learn more about the process for survivors with the goal of helping nurses provide patients with accurate information for making a well-informed decision regarding adoption.
METHODS
Training program participants identified an adoption agency (local, state, or international) and conducted an interview using a semistructured guide. After the interview, participants created a summary of responses to the questions. The authors examined responses to each question using qualitative content analysis.
RESULTS
A total of 77 participants (98% completion rate) across 15 states provided a summary. Responses were distributed across the following categories: adoption costs, steps required for survivors seeking adoption, challenges for survivors seeking adoption, birth parents' reservations, and planned institutional changes to increase adoption awareness. The majority of respondents reported improving their knowledge of adoption and cancer, increased challenges for survivors, and the need to educate patients concerning the realities of adoption policies. The need for a letter stating the survivor was 5 years cancer free was identified as a significant obstacle for survivors.
CONCLUSIONS
Nurses are charged with following practice guidelines that include recommendations for appropriate reproductive health referrals. Cancer survivors would benefit from a health care provider who can provide education and concrete information when patients are making a decision about fertility and adoption.
Topics: Adoption; Antineoplastic Agents, Alkylating; Education, Nursing; Female; Humans; Infertility; Male; Neoplasms; Nurses; Oncology Nursing; Survivors
PubMed: 26180029
DOI: 10.1002/cncr.29322 -
Vital and Health Statistics. Series 23,... Aug 2008This report presents national estimates of the prevalence of adoption for men and women 18-44 years of age, the demand for children to adopt by women, and women's...
UNLABELLED
This report presents national estimates of the prevalence of adoption for men and women 18-44 years of age, the demand for children to adopt by women, and women's preferences for characteristics of the adopted child.
METHODS
Analysis is based on data from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth. This survey interviewed a nationally representative sample of women and men 15-44 years of age in their households. Results are weighted to produce national estimates of the characteristics of men and women who have adopted children, lifetime and current demand for adoption by women, and the characteristics of children preferred by women when they are considering adoption.
RESULTS
Adoption remains rare in the United States. Among all women aged 18-44 in 2002, only 1.1% had adopted a child and 1.6% were currently seeking to adopt. Women were more likely to be currently seeking to adopt, to have ever sought to adopt, and to have actually adopted a child if they had used infertility services or had impaired fecundity. Older women and women who were in their second or later marriage were also more likely to have adopted a child. Hispanic and non-Hispanic black women were more likely to be currently seeking to adopt compared with non-Hispanic white women. More men than women have adopted children in their lifetimes. Among adopters, 17% of women and 6% of men were never married.
CONCLUSIONS
Adopting a child has been and remains a relatively rare event in the United States. Adoption is a mechanism by which adults legalize their parental relationship to nonbiological children as well as a means to bring children into families. Studies examining adoption should include men as well as women and persons of all marital statuses.
Topics: Adolescent; Adoption; Adult; Choice Behavior; Data Collection; Female; Humans; Interviews as Topic; Male; Surveys and Questionnaires; United States; Vital Statistics; Young Adult
PubMed: 18956547
DOI: No ID Found -
Developmental Psychobiology May 2022This study investigated middle childhood resting electroencephalography (EEG) and behavioral adjustment in 35 internationally adopted children removed from early...
This study investigated middle childhood resting electroencephalography (EEG) and behavioral adjustment in 35 internationally adopted children removed from early caregiving adversity between 6 and 29 months of age. Older age of adoption was associated with more immature or atypical profiles of middle childhood cortical function, based on higher relative theta power (4-6 Hz), lower relative alpha power (7-12 Hz), lower peak alpha frequency, and lower absolute beta (13-20 Hz) and gamma (21-50 Hz) power. More immature or atypical EEG spectral power indirectly linked older age of adoption with increased risk for externalizing problems in middle childhood. The findings add to existing evidence linking duration of early adverse exposures with lasting effects on brain function and behavioral regulation even years after living in a stable adoptive family setting. Findings underscore the need to minimize and prevent children's exposures to early caregiving adversity, especially in the first years of life. They call for innovative interventions to support neurotypical development in internationally adopted children at elevated risk.
Topics: Adoption; Brain; Child; Child, Adopted; Electroencephalography; Humans
PubMed: 35452537
DOI: 10.1002/dev.22249 -
Journal of the American Veterinary... Dec 2008To characterize health and behavior problems in dogs and cats 1 week and 1 month after adoption from animal shelters and identify factors associated with the likelihood...
OBJECTIVE
To characterize health and behavior problems in dogs and cats 1 week and 1 month after adoption from animal shelters and identify factors associated with the likelihood that owners of adopted animals would visit a veterinarian.
DESIGN
Cross-sectional study. Sample Population-2,766 (1 week) and 2,545 (1 month) individuals who had adopted an animal from a shelter.
PROCEDURES
Internet and telephone survey responses were collected 1 week and 1 month after animal adoption.
RESULTS
Overall, 1,361 of 2,624 (51.9%) dogs and cats had health problems 1 week after adoption, and 239 of 2,312 (10.3%) had a health problem 1 month after adoption. The most common health problem for dogs and cats was respiratory tract disease. A total of 1,630 of 2,689 (60.6%) respondents had taken their animal to a veterinarian within the first week after adoption and 1,865 of 2,460 (75.8%) had within the first month after adoption. Respondents were more likely to have visited a veterinarian if they had adopted a dog versus a cat or if the animal was young (< or = 1 year old), had > or = 1 health problem, or had adjusted moderately to extremely well to its new home within the first month after adoption. Cats had fewer behavior problems than dogs. One week after adoption, the most commonly reported behavior problem was house training for dogs and chewing, digging, or scratching at objects for cats.
CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Results suggested that improvements can be made in the percentage of new owners who visit a veterinarian after adopting an animal from a shelter.
Topics: Adoption; Animals; Behavior, Animal; Castration; Cat Diseases; Cats; Cross-Sectional Studies; Dog Diseases; Dogs; Eliminative Behavior, Animal; Female; Health Status; Human-Animal Bond; Humans; Likelihood Functions; Male; Ownership; Prevalence; Surveys and Questionnaires; Veterinary Medicine
PubMed: 19046028
DOI: 10.2460/javma.233.11.1715