The impending revolution : the prospect for openness in Korean-American adoptions
This thesis explores the potential for openness in international adoptions and, more specifically, in Korean-American adoptions. Open adoptions are becoming more common in the United States. More adoptees are also searching for their birthfamilies. These changes resulted from social evolutions that reduced the stigmas surrounding adoption and illegitimacy. Changes in domestic adoptions affect international adoptions because both international adoptees and their adoptive parents are exposed to the adoption rights movements in this country. It seems probable that international adoptees will desire contact with their birthfamily as domestic adoptees have. This thesis uses the trend toward openness in the United States and the regulations governing international adoptions to create a list of factors to be evaluated when determining if openness in an international adoption would be beneficial to all members of the adoption triad, specifically the birthmothers, and therefore, probable. It is important to recognize that a birthmother may not always benefit from an open adoption. These factors include residency requirements for the adoptive parents during the adoption proceedings; specific definitions of adoption; stigmatization of illegitimacy; reverence for blood ties; the national divorce rate; population control legislation; a women's health care movement; and an adoption rights movement or birthmother organizations. Evaluating the specific situation in Korea at this time, it seems unlikely that open adoptions are currently possible. However, many social changes, especially connected with the status of women in Korean society, are currently taking place that will likely make open adoptions possible in the future. Thesis Advisor: Sally Haslanger Associate Professor of Philosophy
Openness in Adoption: Exploring Family Connections.
Openness in Adoption The Issues, the Debates, and Evidence to Date Changing Agency Practices toward Openness in Adoption - with Susan Henney and Steven J Onken Method Outcomes for Children - with Gretchen Miller Wrobel et al Adoptive Parents' Perspectives on Their Roles and Relationships with Birthparents - with Deborah Lewis Fravel and Carol Elde Birthmothers' Adjustment and Resolution of Grief - with Cinda Christian and Chalandra Bryant The Adoptive Kinship Network - with Manfred van Dulmen Putting the Perspectives Together General Conclusions and Implications
Initial parenting attitudes of pregnant adolescents and a comparison with the decision about adoption.
The Adult-Adolescent Parenting Inventory was used to examine the initial parenting attitudes of a sample of pregnant adolescents. In addition, the attitudes about parenting were correlated with the decision of the adolescent to either keep or place the baby for adoption. Pregnant adolescents scored significantly lower on the "expectations for children" construct than all groups of controls. They scored significantly higher than adolescent controls on the "empathy" construct but lower than the adult controls. On the "corporal punishment" construct, they scored significantly lower than nonabused adolescent controls but were similar to abused adolescent controls. On the "role-reversal" construct, they scored significantly higher than abused adolescent controls, lower than adult controls, and about the same as nonabused adolescent controls. Adolescents who placed their babies had significantly lower scores on the role-reversal measure, but the differences between keepers and placers on the expectations, empathy, and corporal punishment dimensions were not significant. The results are discussed in terms of (1) the areas where attitudes about parenting are below appropriate levels, (2) the possibility of competent teenage mothers, and (3) the groundwork necessary for preparing adolescents for parenthood should they elect to keep their babies.