Term Paper on "Adoption When an Adopted or Abandoned Teen"

Term Paper 7 pages (1771 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Adoption

When an adopted or abandoned teen or young adult first makes the conscious and determined decision to seek their birth parents, it is but one of many milestones to be reached in the process. Many factors must eventually be taken into consideration; was the adoptee abandoned or granted; at what age was the adoptee transitioned; where the adoptee was originally placed; circumstances surrounding the adopted child's release from the birth parent(s); and so on.

This work will delve into the process of locating the adolescent's birth mother; the effect on the adoptee, adoptive family, and birth family; the adjustments required during the search and discover phases; and the support system from the adopted family required to realize a successful search.

This paper makes the assumption that the adopted parents are living and able to make reasonable contributions to the process.

The Process

In Growing Up Adopted, Dr. Peter L. Benson, et al., reveal that an estimated 65% of adolescents and young adults desire to seek and locate their birthparents.

Beginning the search process - particularly for those not yet reaching the age of majority - requires a wide variety of choices, behaviors, and adoptive family interventions. From intent to action, the process of seeking one's birthparents is often a daunting, time-consuming, and protracted process.

Requiring such structured efforts as adoption agency formal information requests, court hearings and petitions, legal education and representation, and an often serious financial investment, the adolescent or young adult searching for birthparents must be aware of the ramifications of the process and committed to the end result.

The 2004 State Statute Reports issued by the National Adoption Information Clearinghouse that nearly all states continue to require sealed record adoptions with only 'non-identifying' birthparent information publicly available. Some states are relaxing these rigid rules (e.g., Illinois and Wisconsin) but the pervasive and often overriding legal concern for the individual's privacy continues to protect birthparents who have opted for adoption.

Encourage to Search?

The model for societal interest in an adolescent's right to search for the birthparents has morphed over the last century into a normative arena. From the 1920's to 1980's the adoptive criteria was based on similarity of physical characteristics in order to allow the adoptive family to "mimic a biological family" (Bussiere, 1998; Hartman & Laird, 1990). Confidentiality was of paramount importance and the often single birthmother could close the door on that particular event in her life with few social ramifications. Exponentially, very few adolescents or young adults were encouraged to seek out birthparents and those that made the attempt often met with a stonewalled failure (Schechter & Bertocci, 1990).

Today's adolescent often has the desire to determine birthparent identity, autobiographical information, and self-identity data. With fewer available infants, less stigma over unwed mother status, abortion freedoms, and birthparent involvement in placement or open adoption rules, the rising number of adolescent and young adult searches can be largely attributed to the changing norms in modern society.

In the National Council for Adoption's Adoption Factbook III, national organizations -- ranging from Bastard Nation - an open record adoption advocacy group; the Child Welfare League of America - an aggregate of state supporters for a voluntary national registry; to the National Council for Adoption - a council of hard line proponents of keeping adoption records confidential and permanently inaccessible to the adopted child - W.I. Pierce demonstrates that this country continues to be at odds over the rights of identity for the child vs. rights to privacy for the birthparent.

Adoptee Dynamics

The Search Institute - funded by the National Institute of Mental Health - conducted a four-year study of 715 families with adolescent adoptees. The results provided helpful insights into the stability of these adolescents, the contributing adoptive parent roles, and the psychological condition of each participant.

Fifty-five percent of the study participants scored high when self-esteem issues were measured, the group scored higher than the national average in adaptation, adjustment, and social skills, and overall, the study subjects reported a lower incidence of anti-social behavior (e.g., drugs, drinking, theft, and so on).

Dr. Benson reports that the way the adoptive parents deal with grafting the child into the family is of paramount importance. He states, "what seems particularly important is the way parents deal with adoption in the family... Quiet, open communication about adoption seems to be the key."

Interestingly, this study helped demonstrate that adopted adolescents identified with their non-birth parent's ideals, interests, and mores nearly as often as the natural children in the same family.

Attachment

The adolescent who elects to search for birthparents requires a secure physical and emotional attachment to the adoptive parents in order to realize the desired level of safety and success.

In the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA) report, the measure of an adolescent's perception of those multiple dimensions involved in the positive and negative byproducts of relationships with those closest to them is tantamount to psychological security. With adoptive parents, the adolescent required higher levels of mutual trust, more skillful management of anger and feelings of alienation, and a more empathetic degree of communication. When these factors are taken into consideration, "internal consistency reliabilities" were reported at.87 for adoptive mother attachment and.89 for adoptive father (per Cronbach's alpha scale). With these elements safely and reliably in place from the adoptive parents, the searching adolescent or young adult is free to wander without fearing the loss of connectivity or tethering.

Impact on Adoptive Parents

When handled in an open, caring, and calm environment - and often from the earliest times in the relationship - adoptive parents report positive family interactions, increased closeness, and continued positive attachment to one another no matter the adolescent's intent, behavior, or end result and decision (Wrobel, GM, et al., 2004).

In this study, adoptive mothers and fathers reported high levels of comfort with their adolescent's desire to search for birthparents. Adoptive mothers reported think about and anticipate upcoming events and challenges to a greater degree than do the fathers. Adoptive fathers, on the other hand, reported comfort levels increased exponentially with the adolescent's eagerness to search. Significantly, the adolescent and adoptive father's interaction relayed a symbiotic relationship; when the adopted child became more vocal about the desire to search, the adoptive father became more involved and comfortable with the process.

Conversely, the impact on the adoptive parents can be negative. In Adoptive Parents, a Guide to the Issues and Feelings of Adoption, Dr. Marlou Russell describes many of the emotional and psycho-social elements which impact the adoptive parents when their adolescent decides to search for the birthparents.

Often, the desire to adopt is based on matters of infertility, a strong desire to parent, and other bio-social factors. The adoptive process is one of arduous, invasive, and revelatory steps which often leave the anxious candidates mentally and emotionally exhausted. Change in the birthmother's intent at the last moment, economic disasters, and other uncontrollable external factors can add to the high emotional price tag for the eager adoptive parents. When adopting a pre-adolescent or child already firmly established in the teen years, an entirely different set of factors comes into play. It is significant to note that many adoptive parents prefer and seek out newborn children; the inherited temperament, challenges, and problems of an older child are often daunting to inexperienced parents and leave millions of adolescents in foster and state-run care.

Once the "you've been approved and we have your child" message is received, the adoptive parents begin another merry-go-round of self-assessment and preparation. What if we cannot deal with this adolescent? What if the birthparents storm into our lives? What if we eventually have our own child? When should we discuss the teen's rights to search for the birthparents? How involved should we be in the process? Should we encourage or remain silent?

The adoptive parents, therefore, must necessarily be emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually grounded if they wish to benefit the adolescent and add a special measure of quality to his or her life.

Summary

When an adolescent decides to search for his or her birthparents, numerous factors begin to conspire to realize the goal. Significantly, however, the adolescent may not have the foresight, knowledge, or understanding of the impact of these events.

Finding the birthparents is but the beginning of the journey; the adolescent often experiences a loss of personal control, is required to deal well with virtual strangers, evaluate extended family members, demonstrate a mature respect for all people involved in the process, and be prepared to confront the people who relinquished their care and confront the - often unpleasant - reasons for their actions. If the adolescent is of foreign descent, there may also be international issues, cultural taboos, and religious matters with which to deal, as well.

Support systems abound, created to provide the foundation the adolescent and young adult require to navigate the often murky waters of birthparent location and understanding. The first line of support should be the adoptive parents and family. Other… READ MORE

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