Conduct Problems in Adopted and Non-adopted Adolescents and Adoption Satisfaction as a Protective Factor

Associations between parenting characteristics and adolescent substance use: A genetically informed, longitudinal adoption study

The present study examined putative environmental predictors of adolescent substance use, using a prospective adoption design to distinguish between environmental mediation (i.e., parenting influencing adolescent substance use), passive gene-environment correlation (i.e., parental genetic predisposition influencing the association between parenting characteristics and adolescent substance use), and evocative gene-environment correlation (i.e., children's genetic predisposition influencing parenting). Longitudinal data from the Colorado Adoption Project (395 adoptees, 491 nonadoptees, 485 adoptive parents, and 490 biological parents) were examined. Children (48% girls) were assessed at ages 1 to 17 years. Over 90% of the sample were non-Hispanic White. Associations between parenting and adolescent substance use were compared between adoptive and nonadoptive families. Positive, negative, and inconsistent parenting measures in early childhood through adolescence were not consistently associated with adolescent substance use, with only 6% of correlations being statistically significant (r = -0.152 to .207). However, parent-child relationship quality assessed from childhood to adolescence and orientation to parents assessed during adolescence were significantly, negatively associated with adolescent substance use, with 71% of correlations being statistically significant (r = -0.88 to -0.11). There was little evidence of sex differences in the associations. Environmental mediation, rather than passive or evocative gene-environment correlation, explained most associations.

Influence of Communicative Openness on the Psychological Adjustment of Internationally Adopted Adolescents

This study evaluated the predictive relationship between the communicative openness and psychological adjustment of adopted adolescents, controlling for preplacement risk factors. One hundred Spanish international adoptees aged 12-18 took part in the study. Data were gathered with a structured interview, the Youth Self Report and the Adoption Communication Scale. A history of maltreatment prior to the adoption was associated with more closed communication between parents and children. Prenatal drug exposure shows a relationship with the presence of externalizing behaviors and attention problems in adolescents. Finally, a lower degree of communicative openness regarding the child's origins was significantly associated with the presence of all the adolescent behavioral problems studied.

Adoption-related feelings, loss, and curiosity about origins in adopted adolescents

Adoption involves strong emotions. From the adoptee's point of view, adoption means not only the gain of a new family but also inevitable losses. This study aims at analyzing adoption-related feelings, which include the feelings of loss and the ensuing curiosity about the birth family and pre-adoption life. A total of 81 adopted adolescents, aged 12-22, adopted at 4 years of age, on average, participated in this study. The data were collected using the Questionnaire of Adoption-related Feelings and the Adopted Adolescents Interview, which allowed for the identification of the experiences, feelings, and attitudes of the adopted adolescents regarding their story before and after adoption, and their feelings towards their birth family. The results showed that most participants did not identify adoption-related losses. Nevertheless, they acknowledged the existence of some aspects of their adoption story that made them feel sad and angry and could identify several difficulties associated with their adoptive status. Participants showed low levels of curiosity even if they were mostly curious about the reasons why they had been placed up for adoption. The adoptees' feelings when thinking about their birth parents, the curiosity regarding their past, and their adoption-related losses predicted their feelings related to the adoption experience. Several implications for the psychological practice with adopted adolescents will be presented.

The Colorado Adoption Project

This paper describes the Colorado Adoption Project (CAP), an ongoing genetically informative longitudinal study of behavioral development. We describe the features of the adoption design used in CAP, and discuss how this type of design uses data from both parent-offspring and related- versus unrelated-sibling comparisons to estimate the importance of genetic and shared environmental influences for resemblance among family members. The paper provides an overview of CAP's history, how subjects were ascertained, recruited, and retained, and the domains of assessment that have been explored since the CAP's initiation in 1975. Findings from some representative papers that make use of data from CAP participants illustrate the study's multifaceted nature as a parent-offspring and sibling behavioral genetic study, a study that parallels a complimentary twin study, a longitudinal study of development, a source of subjects for molecular genetic investigation, and a study of the outcomes of the adoption process itself. As subjects assessed first at age 1 approach age 40, we hope the CAP will establish itself as the first prospective adoption study of lifespan development.