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Background: Previous literature suggests that children removed from home due to parental substance use disorder (SUD) and placed with older adult foster parents are more likely to achieve permanency than children placed with younger foster parents; however, little, if any, literature has examined this trend across racial identities. Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the intersectional effects of removal due to parental SUD, child's race/ethnicity, and foster parent age on likelihood of, and time to, child permanency. Methods: Twelve years of Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System data were linked to capture all children in the U.S. foster care system between January 1, 2007 and September 30, 2018. Application of multiple sampling procedures resulted in a final analytic sample of 1,943,280. Results: All children with older adult foster parents were more likely to achieve permanency than those with younger foster parents. However, white children with substance-related removals were 17% more likely to achieve permanency when placed with an older adult foster parent than with a younger foster parent. In contrast, children of color with substance-related removals were only 9% more likely to achieve permanency when placed with an older adult foster parent than with a younger foster parent. Conclusions: These findings suggest that older adult foster parents are associated with beneficial effects that may mitigate the deleterious impact of parental SUD on permanency. However, the strength of this protective effect was diminished for children of color. These findings call for attention to the supports available to older adults who foster children of color. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Numerous investigations have sought to understand why Black Americans have a lower prevalence of major depressive disorder (MDD) than white Americans, yet fewer have explored within-racial group variation or its causes. Limited extant evidence indicates that US-born Caribbeans have higher levels of MDD relative to African Americans. Among African Americans, racial identity is considered protective against depression, yet it is unclear how it functions among Black Americans with recent immigrant origins. We examined the extent to which differential effects of racial identity on MDD by ethnic origin explain the elevated prevalence among US-born Caribbeans relative to all other US-born Black Americans. Methods: With data from the largest nationally representative study of Black mental health, log-binomial models assessed effect modification of ethnic origin (Caribbean, non-Caribbean) on the relationship between racial identity and MDD. Separate models evaluated four indicators of racial identity—"closeness to Black people," "importance of race to one's identity," "belief that one's fate is shared with other Black people," and "Black group evaluation." Results: Belief in "shared fate" was positively associated with MDD for US-born Caribbeans alone (PR = 3.43, 95% CI 1.87, 6.27). Models suggested that "importance of race" and "Black group evaluation" were detrimental for Caribbeans, yet protective for non-Caribbeans. "Closeness" appeared protective for both groups. Conclusion: Findings suggest that the protective effect of racial identity against MDD among US-born Black Americans may depend on both ethnic origin and the operationalization of racial identity. Results provide new insight into the role of racial identity on depression and suggest promising directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Transracial adoption (TRA), where parents from one race adopt a child from another race, usually occurs with Black children being adopted by White parents in South Africa.Using multiple case studies (seven children) and a qualitative research design, the self-identity (personal and social) of six- to ten-year-old TRA children was explored. Data were collected from the adoptive parents and teachers by means of semi-structured interviews and the Child Behaviour Checklist. Additionally, parents completed a questionnaire and a Likert-style response scale. Participating children were assessed by an independent psychologist using three projective techniques. The data generated were thematically analysed.There were six emergent themes, all conducive to healthy self-identity development by securing primary identity motivators of belonging and acceptance. The children exhibited advanced communicative skills and a novel approach to group membership, increasing their social accessibility and inclusion. A distinctive theme was a desire for a dedicated personal space and possessions symbolizing permanence in the family. The universal adoptive elements of loss and rejection was confirmed, possibly more prevalent due to an observable adoptive status and physical dissimilarity from the adoptive family. Intentional parenting promoting healthy self-identity was apparent. Lastly, the importance of placing the children in an accommodating and sensitive school environment was noted.While not a comparative study, and with only seven children, it appears that these TRA children, with the acquisition of positive social skills and a sensitive and purposeful home and school environment, possessed the building blocks necessary to nurture a healthy self-identity.Method: Transracial adoption (TRA), where parents from one race adopt a child from another race, usually occurs with Black children being adopted by White parents in South Africa.Using multiple case studies (seven children) and a qualitative research design, the self-identity (personal and social) of six- to ten-year-old TRA children was explored. Data were collected from the adoptive parents and teachers by means of semi-structured interviews and the Child Behaviour Checklist. Additionally, parents completed a questionnaire and a Likert-style response scale. Participating children were assessed by an independent psychologist using three projective techniques. The data generated were thematically analysed.There were six emergent themes, all conducive to healthy self-identity development by securing primary identity motivators of belonging and acceptance. The children exhibited advanced communicative skills and a novel approach to group membership, increasing their social accessibility and inclusion. A distinctive theme was a desire for a dedicated personal space and possessions symbolizing permanence in the family. The universal adoptive elements of loss and rejection was confirmed, possibly more prevalent due to an observable adoptive status and physical dissimilarity from the adoptive family. Intentional parenting promoting healthy self-identity was apparent. Lastly, the importance of placing the children in an accommodating and sensitive school environment was noted.While not a comparative study, and with only seven children, it appears that these TRA children, with the acquisition of positive social skills and a sensitive and purposeful home and school environment, possessed the building blocks necessary to nurture a healthy self-identity.Results: Transracial adoption (TRA), where parents from one race adopt a child from another race, usually occurs with Black children being adopted by White parents in South Africa.Using multiple case studies (seven children) and a qualitative research design, the self-identity (personal and social) of six- to ten-year-old TRA children was explored. Data were collected from the adoptive parents and teachers by means of semi-structured interviews and the Child Behaviour Checklist. Additionally, parents completed a questionnaire and a Likert-style response scale. Participating children were assessed by an independent psychologist using three projective techniques. The data generated were thematically analysed.There were six emergent themes, all conducive to healthy self-identity development by securing primary identity motivators of belonging and acceptance. The children exhibited advanced communicative skills and a novel approach to group membership, increasing their social accessibility and inclusion. A distinctive theme was a desire for a dedicated personal space and possessions symbolizing permanence in the family. The universal adoptive elements of loss and rejection was confirmed, possibly more prevalent due to an observable adoptive status and physical dissimilarity from the adoptive family. Intentional parenting promoting healthy self-identity was apparent. Lastly, the importance of placing the children in an accommodating and sensitive school environment was noted.While not a comparative study, and with only seven children, it appears that these TRA children, with the acquisition of positive social skills and a sensitive and purposeful home and school environment, possessed the building blocks necessary to nurture a healthy self-identity.Discussion: Transracial adoption (TRA), where parents from one race adopt a child from another race, usually occurs with Black children being adopted by White parents in South Africa.Using multiple case studies (seven children) and a qualitative research design, the self-identity (personal and social) of six- to ten-year-old TRA children was explored. Data were collected from the adoptive parents and teachers by means of semi-structured interviews and the Child Behaviour Checklist. Additionally, parents completed a questionnaire and a Likert-style response scale. Participating children were assessed by an independent psychologist using three projective techniques. The data generated were thematically analysed.There were six emergent themes, all conducive to healthy self-identity development by securing primary identity motivators of belonging and acceptance. The children exhibited advanced communicative skills and a novel approach to group membership, increasing their social accessibility and inclusion. A distinctive theme was a desire for a dedicated personal space and possessions symbolizing permanence in the family. The universal adoptive elements of loss and rejection was confirmed, possibly more prevalent due to an observable adoptive status and physical dissimilarity from the adoptive family. Intentional parenting promoting healthy self-identity was apparent. Lastly, the importance of placing the children in an accommodating and sensitive school environment was noted.While not a comparative study, and with only seven children, it appears that these TRA children, with the acquisition of positive social skills and a sensitive and purposeful home and school environment, possessed the building blocks necessary to nurture a healthy self-identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study offers a critical content analysis of thirty-six contemporary realistic picturebooks featuring transracial Chinese adoption. The theoretical framework of critical literacy highlights significant sociocultural implications of these portrayals: in particular, negative stereotypes and ideologies, in an attempt to call for inclusivity and respect. Though these adoption tales provide an opportunity for Chinese adoptees to explore sociocultural identities and for other young readers to perceive the world of adoption-created families from a different perspective, negative depictions of certain aspects suggest that transracial Chinese adoption narratives are highly contested in terms of how Chinese adoptees are viewed and what family configurations are valued. The stories sometimes omit or simplify the complexities and nuances involved in the practice, the voices of birth parents and adoptees are noticeably absent, and certain ideologies prevail in some adoptive narratives. The complex picture of what transnational adoption looks like and means for those involved needs to be more critically explored and extended by children's literature researchers as unveiling discourses on belonging and exclusion are informed by values that will be passed on to the new generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information on oropharyngeal dysphagia (OD), a condition that can affect nutritional status, especially in older adults, and discusses its causes and consequences, including malnutrition, sarcopenia, frailty, and various chronic diseases. It highlights the importance of timely diagnosis and treatment of OD to prevent health deterioration and complications.

Purpose: To translate and cross-culturally adapt the Skindex-16, a brief skin-disease-specific QoL questionnaire, into Arabic for Egyptians and to evaluate its measurement properties in Egyptian patients with skin disease.Method: Translation and cultural adaption were performed following guidelines for cross-cultural adaption of health-related quality of life measures. Subsequently, Skindex-16 was administered to 500 consecutive dermatological patients and 500 healthy persons for verification of its reliability and validity. Next, we examined the effect of skin disorders on QoL as well as influences of age, sex, socioeconomic level, education, and use of medication on skin disease-related QoL.Results: The instrument showed high internal consistency reliability and good construct and content validity. The quality of life was most deteriorated in the emotional domain followed by symptoms domain (mean percentage score 55.5 ± 23.1 and 31.7 ± 26.8 respectively), while functioning was the least affected domain (mean percentage score 29.1 ± 26.8). Higher total Skindex-16 scores were observed for patients with psoriasis, urticaria, acne, and atopic dermatitis than those with vitiligo and alopecia areata. Educational level, social class, medication use, and family history influenced the impact of skin disease on overall QoL.Conclusion: The adapted Egyptian Arabic version of Skindex-16 is valid and reliable; it showed that skin problems had a clinically significant impact on QoL in Egyptian patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increasing number of children are adopted in the United States from countries where both medical care and environmental conditions are extremely poor. In response to worries about the accuracy of medical histories, prospective adoptive parents increasingly request genetic testing of children prior to adoption. Though a general consensus on the ethics of pre-adoption genetic testing (PAGT) argues against permitting genetic testing on children available for adoption that is not also permitted for children in general, a view gaining traction argues for expanding the tests permitted. The reasoning behind this view is that the State has a duty to provide a child with parents who are the best 'match,' and thus all information that advances this end should be obtained. While the matching argument aims to promote the best interests of children, I show how it rests on the claim that what is in the best interests of children available for adoption is for prospective adoptive parents to have their genetic preferences satisfied such that the 'genetics' of the children they end up adopting accurately reflects those preferences. Instead of protecting a vulnerable population, I conclude, PAGT contributes to the risks of harm such children face as it encourages people with strong genetic preferences to adopt children whose genetic backgrounds will always be uncertain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption, designed to protect the best interests of the child in intercountry adoption, has been signed by 83 nations. We evaluate both the strengths and the weaknesses of the Convention in achieving this purpose and also in protecting a second vulnerable population, birth families. A case study example of the United States' implementation of the Hague requirements reveals several weaknesses with respect to non-Convention countries as sending nations, financial oversight, and oversight of foreign collaborators. International birth families, especially birth mothers giving consent to an adoption, are often vulnerable because of a lack of power and resources, as well as different cultural understandings of the nature of family and adoption. We conclude that in order to protect vulnerable children and birth families, individual sending and receiving countries need to supplement the Hague Convention with specific, contextually appropriate laws and regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increase in international adoptions during the last decade, many researchers have investigated the developmental outcomes of these adoptees, including their extreme behaviors. Collectively, these results have not always appeared consistent across studies, perhaps because studies have used children reared in institutions or not, the institutional environments vary in severity, children spend different lengths of time in the institution and are assessed at different ages, and studies use different outcome measures. In an attempt to discern more order in the literature, this review focuses on 18 studies, each of which used the Child Behavior Checklist, and their outcomes are viewed with respect to these parameters. Results suggest that the major factor contributing to extreme behaviors is age at adoption, with those adopted after 6/18 months having more behavior problems, especially Internalizing, Externalizing, and Attention problems. Generally, samples of post-institutional children have more problems than samples of mixed or non-institutional internationally adopted children, and some problems are more likely to be manifest in adolescence, suggesting the effects of deficient early experiences are not simply the persistence of learned behavior but more general dispositions that become more noticeable or severe during adolescence. Findings are discussed in terms of early deficient social–emotional caregiver–child interactions that characterize most institutional environments as a possible major cause of later difficulties in post-institutionalized children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To conduct the first population-based surveillance in the United States of parents who adopted children from countries outside of the United States. A 556-item survey was mailed to 2,977 parents who finalized an international adoption in Minnesota between January 1990 and December 1998; 1,834 (62%) parents returned a survey. Eighty-eight percent of the parents reported transracial adoptions (97% of the parents were white); 57% of the adopted children were Asian; 60% were female; and on average, the children were 18 months-old at the time of placement. Only 15% of the parents reported household annual incomes less than $50,000 and 71% reported they had college educations. Sixty-one percent traveled to their child’s country of birth prior to the adoption. Almost three-quarters involved their children in experiences related to their birth countries and 98% would recommend international adoption. Three-quarters of the parents believe that parental leave was an issue for them as they adopted. This is the first population-based survey of U.S. parents who have adopted internationally. The adoptive parents were socioeconomically different than birth parents in Minnesota and their families are most likely to be transracial. Because international adoption has become more prevalent, it is important to understand the strengths and needs of families that are created through this unique form of migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internationally adopted (IA) children are at increased risk for health-related, developmental, and behavioral difficulties. This article reviews the literature on various interventions currently used with IA populations; including health-related interventions provided by medical specialists, preparation programs provided by adoption agencies and other social service organizations, treatments for attachment and behavioral disorders, psychoeducational services, programs designed to improve children’s care prior to adoption, and parent-based initiatives. Surprisingly, very little systematic information exists regarding the effectiveness of interventions designed to prevent and remediate these difficulties in IA children. Recommendations for future research activity and for best practice approaches to intervention are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implications of developments in intercountry adoption worldwide in the early years of the twenty-first century are explored, based on analysis of data from 20 receiving countries. Between 1998 and 2004, intercountry adoption increased by 42 per cent. Problems in data collection and analysis are examined, as is the reliability of estimates of numbers of children sent by countries of origin when derived from data provided by receiving countries. Also considered are various measures of standardization which can be used to facilitate comparison between countries and show trends over time. The potential for more detailed comparative analysis is explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tel Aviv is a highly ethnic city in which ethnicity is deeply embedded in people's perceptions of their social milieus. Shapira, as one of the most heterogeneous neighborhoods in Tel Aviv, supplies a unique demonstration of the inadequacy of the Chicago model, which assumes the emergence of homogeneous neighborhoods. The study shows that ethnicity is exercised as a major force in determining social life in Shapira. Interactive segregation indices reveal that residents of Shapira tend to prefer intra-ethnic social networks although two-thirds of them maintain interethnic networks as well. Despite this, residential and activity spaces are highly heterogeneous. Residential spaces are heterogeneous on all scales from residents' immediate surroundings to the block and the neighborhood as a whole. In most buildings one may find neighbors from two or three different ethnic groups with only non-Jewish residents excluded from publicly owned buildings. Most residents perform large part of their everyday life outside the neighborhoods in ethnically heterogeneous surroundings, but nonetheless in choosing their more meaningful partners for social networks they choose them from their ethnic groups. The fact that residents tend to perform a large part of their activities out of their neighborhood, and to live in heterogeneous surroundings in social categories that are perceived by them salient to their daily life, does not undermine the relevance of the neighborhood as a socially constituted entity in the urban field. People organize and act in order to improve life conditions in the neighborhood, they feel sense of attachment to the neighborhood and they develop some local social networks in the neighborhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with regulating the global adoption of children. Like most transnational activities, international adoption has been strongly criticized, for a multitude of faults. Among the most vehemently asserted are that baby-selling and child-trafficking, bribery and corruption and exploitation of the human capital of poor countries are involved. The fundamental problem underlying the current system is the abundance of children without families. Foreign adoptions have traditionally served humanitarian purposes, while also providing children to the childless. The dialectic between providing homes for children and providing children for parents must be recognized.

This study follows up a sample of transracial and inracial children adopted in infancy in the mid-1970s. The present report, based on 1993 data, covers parental assessments when children were in their early twenties (subject's mean age = 23). In this report I compare inracially adopted White young adults (N = 37), with transracially adopted Asians (N = 151), African-Americans (N = 33) and Latinos (N = 19). Comparisons show no significant adjustment deficits for the subgroups of transracial adoptees in comparison with their inracially adopted White peers. Adjustment problems vary considerably among the transracially adopted young adults; discrimination against the transracial adoptee, and discomfort about their appearance are found as significant correlates associated with adjustment difficulties. Parents report fewer adoptees feeling uneasy about their appearances, when adoptive families live in racially heterogenous settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Narrates the chronology and major findings of American University professor Rita Simon's study on transracial adoptions. Purpose for studying transracial adoption; Research design used for the study; Reaction of the parents' who adopted and the children who were adopted twenty years after the adoption took place.

Focuses on international transracial adoption of Korean children. Korean adoption rules; Initial development of adopted children; Early adolescence development; Early adulthood development.

This article discusses the study Transracial and Inracial Adoptees--The Adolescent Years, by Ruth McRoy and Louis Zurcher. The study is one of only a few to examine the effects of a trend that originated in the 1960s in which children were placed in adoptive homes of parents who were not the same race as the child. The process began as transcultural as Korean children were placed in the U.S. in white adoptive homes beginning in the 1950s. The study attempted to identify self-concept or racial identity differences that exist between the children, who are now adolescents, raised in black families and those raised in white families. While the results reflected no marked difference in overall levels of self-esteem, differences did emerge in the children's self-concept of their racial identity.