Special Needs Adoptions:  What Have We Learned?
Presented by Ruth G. McRoy
r.mcroy@mail.utexas.edu

NYS Citizens' Coalition for Children, Inc.
17th Annual Statewide Adoption Training Conference
Adoption 2006: There's No Place like Home
May 12-13, 2006 • Albany New York

Successful Adoptive Families

Methodology and Goals

• Interviews and Surveys with families
• Interviews with matched family and child workers (118 staff interviewed)
• Interviews completed with non-matched agency staff (32 in 2003)

Interviews and Surveys

• Family interviews completed (160)
• Survey A - Child's Background & Challenges (139 received)
• Survey B - Standardized Outcome Measures (132 received)
  • ENRICH marital Satisfaction Scale - Adapted (flowers & Olson, 1993)
  • PSI Parenting Stress Index (Abidin, 1986)Study on Special Needs Adoption - Survey (Reilly & Platz, 2003)
  • Attachment Style Questionnaire – Adapted (Feeney, Noller, & Hanrahan, 1994)
• One year follow-up surveys (33 received)

Demographics
(N=160 families, N=268 parents)

• Average Age
  • Mothers: 45
  • Fathers: 46
• Average Family Income
  • $60,998
• Average Time in Home for Children
  • 3.9 years (Range: 4 months to 12 years)

Demographics – Highest Education
(N=160 families, N=268 parents)

Demographics – Family Ethnicity (N=160)

• Black/African American: 18 / 11%
• Hispanic/Latino: 5 / 3%
• Interracial: 11 / 7%
• Mixed 1 1% White/Caucasian (non-Hispanic) 125/ 78%

Demographics – Family & Focus Child Ethnicity

• White/Caucasian (non-Hispanic): 89 / 56%
• Black/African American: 19 / 11%
• White/Caucasian (non-Hispanic) & Black/African American: 14 / 8%
• Hispanic/Latino: 8 / 5%
• White/Caucasian (non-Hispanic) & Other: 6 / 4%
• White/Caucasian (non-Hispanic) & Bi-Racial: 3 2%
• White/Caucasian (non-Hispanic) & American Indian/Native American: 3 2%
• Mixed & Other: 1 1%
• Interracial & Black/African American: 1 1%
• White/Caucasian (non-Hispanic) & Black/African American: 2 1%
• Black/African American & Hispanic/Latino: 1 1%
• Interracial & Black/African American: 1 1%

Families Who Have Adopted More Than One Child (N=105)

Adoptive Families Who Are Also Fostering (N=32) *128 Families are not currently fostering

Family Type (N=160 families; 268 adoptive parents)

• Married couple (Average Years Married = 16 Years): 103 / 64%
• Single female: 47 / 29%
• Single male: 5 / 3%
• Non married couple: 3 / 2%
• Female same sex couple: 1 / 1%
• Male same sex couple: 1 / 1%

Family Type by Agency Type N=160 Families

Special Needs – All Adopted Children in Families

• 431 children with 730 special needs
• 86 Children have no special needs
• 345 Children have at least one special need
  • 116 children have only one special need;
  • 229 children have multiple special needs)

Special Needs – Focus Children (N=160 focus children with 339 special needs)

• 16 children have no special needs
• 144 children have at least one special need
  • (40 children have only one special need;
  • 104 children have multiple special needs)

Special Needs – Focus Children (N=160 focus children with 339 special needs)

• ADD/ADHD: 64 / 40%
• Other: 31 / 19%
• Learning Disability: 25 / 16%
• Attachment Disorder: 24 / 15%
• Behavior: 18 11%
• Emotional Issues 18 / 11%
• PTSD: 18 / 11%
• None: 13 / 8%
• Fetal Alcohol: / 14 9%
• Operational Defiant Disorder:r: 12 / 8%
• Educational Issues: 8 / 5%
• Depression 7 4%
• Developmentally Delayed: 8 / 5%
• Sibling: 7 / 4%
• Mental Retardation: 7 / 4%
• Speech Problems: 9 / 6%
• Bipolar: 7 / 4%
• Older Child: 5 / 3%
• Seizures: 5 / 3%
• Autism: 4 / 3%
• Cerebral Palsy: 3/ 2%
• Visual Impairment: 3 / 2%
• Anger: 3 / 2%
• Missing: 3 / 2%
• Anxiety: 3 / 2%
• Conduct Disorder: 3 / 2%
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: 2 / 1%
• Asperger’s Syndrome: 2 / 1%
• Asthma: 2 / 1%

• Minority: 2 / 1%

• Sexually Abused: 2 / 1%

• Allergies: 1 / <1%

• SPD: 1 / <1%

• Shaken Baby Syndrome: 1 <1%

• Drug Exposure: 1 <1%

• HIV/AIDS: 1 <1%

• Prune Belly Syndrome: 1 <1%

• Motor Delays: 1 <1%

Why did you choose to adopt from the foster care system? (N=129 transcribed interviews, total N=160)

• There are so many children in US who need families (40%, n=52)
• Financial Reasons (34%, n=44)
• Didn't’t want a baby (34%, n=44)
• Wanted an older child (20%, n=26)
• Fostered a child, grew attached, and wanted to adopt that particular child (18%, n=23)
• Wanted to help a disadvantaged child (11%, n=14)
• Single Parent (11%, n=14)

Why did you choose to adopt from the foster care system? - Comments

• “Our neighbors have a teenage child that has cerebral palsy … we were looking for a special needs child that was actually like our neighbors because she is so much fun.”
• “I tend to enjoy kids once they can talk and tie their own shoes. There are plenty of people to care of infants … not so with older children.”

Families who Adopted a Child Age 9 or Older at Placement

• 35% (56) Child was age 9 or older
• 65% (104) Child was under age 9
• 28% of "focus" children (45) were age 9 or older at placement

How Parents First Learned About Adopted Child ( N=139)

Top Services Parents Received

• Adoption Subsidy 89%
• Routine Medical Care 79%
• Other Financial Supports 76%
• Dental Care 75%
• Individual Therapy 70%
• Educational Assessment 58%
• Psychological 57%
• Time with Other Adoptive Parents 55%
• Special Education Classes 50%

Top Services Parents Needed But Did Not Receive

• Respite Care (N=47)
• Support group for adopted child (N=45)
• In-home day care (N=41)
• Adoptive parent support group (N=37)
• Tutoring (N=37)

Children’s Behavioral Challenges Identified by Parents (N=131)

• Anger 63% / 83
• Impulsive 59% / 77
• Defiance 57% / 75
• Lying 50% / 66

• Manipulative 48% / 63

• Violating rules of conduct 47% / 62

• Tantrums 46% / 60

• Arguing / peer problems 43% / 56

• Arguing with sibs 42% / 55

• Hyperactivity 38% / 50

• Disobedient 37% / 48

• Stealing 36% / 47

• Verbal aggression 35% 46

• Physical Aggression 34% / 45

• Depression 31% 41

• Sabotaging relationships 28% 37

• Inability to Attach to Family Members 24% / 31

• Irritability 24% / 31
• Sexual acting out 20% / 26

• Bad friends 19% / 25

• Vandalism 19% / 25

• Rejects affection 19% / 25

• Self-abuse 17% 22

  Suicidal 15% / 20

• Runaway 15%/ 20

• Arrests 12% 16

• Eating disorder 12% / 16

• Violence 12% 16

• Withdrawn 11% / 14

• Cruelty 9% / 12

• Threat/use of weapon 8% / 10

• Soiling 8% / 10

• Homicidal 3%/ 4

• Substance abuse 3% / 4

• Fire setting 1% / 1

Success Factor Study - Statistically significant findings about unmet needs:

• School aged children had more unmet tutoring needs than teenagers.
• Parents of minority teenagers had more unmet respite care needs than parents of White teens.
• Two-parent families as opposed to single parent families had more unmet needs for ‘time with other adoptive parents’.
• Parents of White teens had more unmet support group needs than parents of minority teens.

Review of other Research on Successful Special Needs Families

Groza findings

• Children who have been physically, sexually, or multiply abused have more behavior problems and attachment difficulties than nonabused children.
• Family functioning did not appear to be affected by abuse history. 
• Children who had been abused exhibited the following behaviors
  • Anger, acting out,
  • withdrawal/denial/ low self-esteem/ and
  • to a lesser extent, sensitivity to vulnerable groups (elderly, babies, and small animals)

Social Support (Groza, 1996)

• Provides encouragement and positive feedback
• Protects against stress
• Contributes knowledge, skills, and resources
• Socialization opportunities
• Helps family define who they are as an adoptive family

Additional Considerations

• Sibling Placements
• Foster parent Adoptions
• Single Parent Adoptions
• Transracial Adoptions
• Matching Children and Families
• Transition Planning

Placement Issues

• Matching Children and Families
• Child Preparation
• Family Preparation
• Post Adoption Services
• Availability of Subsidy
• New Approaches in to Support Special Needs Adoptive Families

Goals of Healthy Marriage Retreat

• To increase safety, permanency, and couple and child (family) well being.
• To provide opportunities for networking with other adoptive married couples.

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NYS Citizens' Coalition for Children, Inc.
410 East Upland Road • Ithaca, NY 14850
607-272-0034 • FAX 607-272-0035
office@nysccc.org
07/03/06