Hostname: page-component-68945f75b7-4zrgc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-06T01:20:50.939Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An overview of developmental issues in counselling adoptive families

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2016

Juliet Harper
Juliet Harper*
Affiliation:
Macquarie University
*
School of Behavioural Sciences, Macquarie University, SYDNEY NSW 2109
Get access

Extract

Adoption as a social phenomenon has always given rise to emotional controversy and the over-representation of adopted children at clinics and mental heath facilities has lead to studies which have focussed on the concept of psychological risk associated with adoption. Referral for assistance requires that counsellors and therapists appreciate the unique circumstances and vulnerabilities of adoptive families and are able to differentiate between normal transitional crises and adoption issues. To this end an overview of adoption concerns and, in particular, a developmental approach to adoption, is presented as a guide for those health professionals working with adoptive families.

Adoption has provided a fertile area of investigation into family attachment and functioning, and in particular the relative impact of nurture versus nature in human growth and development, although the secrecy surrounding adoption and the sensitivity of the process has created methodological problems and made it difficult to conduct representative large-scale studies. A re-occurring question has been whether the process of adoption itself is a stressor which predisposes adoptive families to psychological distress and maladjustment, and if so how does this manifest itself?

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Psychologists and Counsellors in Schools , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , November 1996 , pp. 125 - 132
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Brodzinsky, D.M., Singer, L.M. & Braff, A.M. (1984). Children's Understanding of Adoption, Child Development, 55, 869–878CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brodzinsky, D.M. (1987). Adjustment to Adoption: A Psychosocial Perspective. Clinical Psychology Review, 7, 25–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, N.J., Coyne, J. & Duvall, J. (1993). Adopted & Biological Children in the Clinic: Family Parental & Child Characteristics, Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry, 34(4), 545–562CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eisen, P. (1979). Children under stress, Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 13, 193–207CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Erikson, E. (1963). Childhood & Society. New York: W.W. Norton, 2nd editionGoogle Scholar
Harper, J. (1986). An individual at risk? The adopted adolescent & family. Australian Social Work, 39 (1), 9–13CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harper, J. (1987). Counselling issues in intercountry adoption. Australian Counselling Psychologist, 3(1), 94-100Google Scholar
Harper, J. (1990). The good enough adoptive parent. Mental Health in Australia, June, 10-14Google Scholar
Kent, K.G. & Ritchie, J.L. (1976). Adoption as an issue in casework with adoptive parents. American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 15, 510–522CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kirk, H.D., Jonasshohn, K. & Fish, A.D. (1966). Are adopted children especially vulnerable to stress? Archives of General Psychiatry, 14, 291–298CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Miall, C.E. (1987). The stigma of adoptive parent staus: Perceptions of community attitudes toward adoption and the experience of informal social sanctioning. Family Relations, 36, 34–39CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schecter, M. (1960). Obstructions on adoptive children. Archives of General Psychiatry, 3(1), 21–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sorosky, A.D., Baran, A. & Pannor, R. (1975). Identity conflicts in adopteees. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 45(1), 18–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warren, S.B. (1992). Lower threshold for referral for psychiatric treatment for adopted adolescents. Journal of American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 31(3), 512–527CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Watkins, M & Fisher, S. (1993). Talking to young children about adoption. New Haven: Yale University PressGoogle Scholar