Implications of Recent Research on Eastern European Adoptees for Social Work Practice

Abstract

Social workers engaged in preparing and supporting families that adopt non-infants and sibling groups from Russia and other Eastern European countries need to be well-versed in: (1) the issues that affect this population of adoptees and adopters; and (2) the recent research on both. They also need to expand the model of adoptive families that drives their work. The authors identify three areas of risk to successful older-child adoptee and adoptive family functioning, explore the consequences of detrimental adoption policies and practices on the micro and macro-levels, and make recommendations for needed changes. The changes the authors identify are framed through an investigation of recent research on international adoptees and their adoptive families. The authors use adoptive parents’ own words to make the issues they discuss more concrete. Implications for social worker training and practice, and expanded roles for social workers, are identified.

Appendices

Appendix A: A Profile of the Parents Who Participated in Ruggiero’s Questionnaire Survey

The typical (modal) respondent was the adoptive mother (84%) who lived in the mainland United States (over 95%), was in her forties at the time she completed the questionnaire (65%), was married (76%) to a spouse who was also in his forties age range (66%) at that time at the time she completed the questionnaire. Respondents were predominantly Caucasian and from no one dominant ethnic background. The same was true of spouses/partners. Most respondents (70%) were childless prior to adopting their first child internationally. They tended to adopt a single child (48%), although adopting two children was almost as likely (41%). If the respondent adopted two or more children simultaneously, the children were likely to be full siblings or half siblings. Typically, respondents adopted their first child internationally in 1997. For those who adopted a second child internationally in a separate adoption, the peak year for these adoptions was 1998. In the early part of the last decade, the peak year for adoptions was 1995. In the later part of the decade, the peak year for adoptions was 1997. In those 2 years alone 38% of these respondents’ children entered their new families.

Appendix B: A Profile of the Children These Respondents Adopted Internationally

The parents who participated in the questionnaire study adopted a total of 208 children. Because no information was provided on the dates that two of the children were adopted, the total number on which percentages are based was 206 children. The children adopted from an eastern European country ranged in age from 3 months (a child from Romania) to 15 years old (a child adopted from Bulgaria). The oldest child adopted by a respondent was 25 years old. She was the last of six East Indian girls adopted by a single mother.

The typical adoptee joined his/her adoptive family between 1990 and 2000 (96%) most likely between 1996 and 2001 (61%), was born in Russia (55%), had lived in his/her adoptive family between 2 and 4 years (52%) at the time his/her parent(s) participated in the questionnaire survey. Most of the children (90%) were adopted from an orphanage and about half (51%) had lived in an orphanage setting for at least 2 years before being adopted. If the child was a single adoptee, that child was likely to be a girl. Girls outnumbered boys by about three to two. If two children were adopted, they were likely to be a girl and a boy (64%). If two or more children were adopted together, they were likely to be siblings. Almost two out of three (65%) of these adoptees were 25 months old or older when they were adopted. Most (56%) adoptees had never lived in the birth home. When an adoptee did live in the birth home prior to entering the orphanage, according to the adoptive parent(s), s/he was likely to have entered the orphanage either because birth parental rights were terminated by the courts due to neglect and/or abuse (61%) or because the child was abandoned (17%).

Most (81%) adoptees were reported to have a problem in at least one of five categories at the time of adoption: physical, behavioral, emotional, psychological, and other. About one in 10 respondents said that some of their children had problems but others did not. About two-thirds of the adoptees were likely to have problems in at least two categories: 16% in two categories, 44% in three categories, and six percent in four or five categories. If an adoptee had a single problem, that problem was likely to be “physical health” (69%). Emotional and behavioral problems ranked next, followed by psychological ones. When parents reported multiple problems, the constellation of problems typically included emotional, behavioral, and psychological issues. Adoptees were more likely than not to still have the problem or problems at the time respondents completed the questionnaire (56%). An additional 13% of respondents said that some of the children they adopted did. Typically, problems DID NOT resolve by themselves. Respondents reported that their child/children needed speech therapy (54%) of the children with this problem, services for “other” problems (53%), special education (45%), psychological or psychiatric services (43%), and language services (32%). Parents said they were generally able to arrange for services their child/children seemed to need. They were most successful in obtaining speech and psychological services (98% for each), followed by “other” services (85%), special education (84%), and language (78%). Just over half (54%) of the respondents reported paying “out-of-pocket” for the services their child/children needed.