Handbook of Adoption: Implications for Researchers, Practitioners, and Families

While most mental health and behavioral health professionals have encountered adoption triad members-birth parents, adoptive parents, and adopted persons-in their clinical practice, the vast majority have had no formal or informal training on adoption issues. The Handbook of Adoption: Implications for Researchers, Practitioners, and Families is the first book to specifically address the many dimensions of adoption-related issues which can and do affect adoption triad members, specifically in the United States. Key Features: Includes contributions from nationally known experts: Prominent authors who are directly involved in adoption-related research and practice provide insight from personal and professional experience. Theory and real-life examples come together in the "Treatment Issues" and in the "Training and Education" sections of each chapter. Reviews the major theoretical, historical, and research issues of adoption: The book begins by addressing the historical and theoretical issues surrounding adoption, thus providing the reader with a comprehensive review of the adoption landscape from past to present and setting the stage for topics addressed in the remainder of the book. Reflects upon many issues affecting adoption triad members: The contributing authors address issues pertaining to transracial adoption; special issues in adoption such as foster care, single parents, and special needs; training and education issues; assessment and treatment issues; and much more. Intended Audience: This extensive resource is designed for researchers, practitioners, students and families interested in learning more about and working with adoption triad members. It will be particularly relevant in counselor education programs, departments of social work and policy, and marriage and family counseling programs which emphasize developing clinical skills with a variety of clients.

Table of Contents:
Foreword - David Brodzinsky 1. Breaking the Seal: Taking Adoption Issues to the Academic and Professional Communities - Rafael A. Javier, Douglas B. Henderson, Amanda L. Baden, Frank Biafora, and Alina Camacho-Gingerich Part I: Foundation - Frank Biafora 2. Toward a Sociology of Adoption: Historical Deconstruction - Dawn Esposito and Frank Biafora 3. Adoption Data and Statistical Trends - Frank Biafora and Dawn Esposito 4. A Legal Hisotry of Adoption and Ongoing Legal Challenges - Madelyn Freundlich Part II: Theoretical Issues in Adoption - Rafael A. Javier 5. Developmental Challenges for Adoptees Across the Lifecycle - Michael McGinn 6. Adoptive Identity: How Contexts Within and Beyond the Family Shape Developmental Pathways - Harold D. Grotevant, Nora Dunbar, Julie K. Kohler, and Amy M. Lash Esau 7. The Cultural-Racial Identity Model: A Theoretical Framework for Studying Transracial Adoptees - Amanda L. Baden and Robbie J. Steward 8. Putting Culture Into Context: The Impact of Attitudes Toward the Adoption of Chinese Adoptees - Amanda L. Baden Part III: Transracial and International Adoption - Amanda L. Baden 9. Moving Beyond the Controversy of the Transracial Adoption of Black and Biracial Children - Rhonda Roorda 10. International Adoption of Latin American Children: Psychololgical Adjustment, Cultural, and Legal Issues - Alina Camacho-Gingerich, Susan Branco, Rafael A. Javier, and Raul Pitieri 11. From the Ashes of War: Lessons From 50 years of Korean International Adoption - Hollee McGinnis Part IV: Special Issues in Adoption - Amanda L. Baden 12. Open Adoptions: Longitudinal Outcomes for the Adoption Triad - Ruth McRoy, Harold D. Grotevant, Susan Ayers-Lopez, and Susan M. Henney 13. Single-Parent Adoptions and Clinical Implications - Naz Pakizegi 14. The Special Needs of Special-Needs Adoptees and Their Families - Elizabeth Keagy and Barbara Rall 15. Double Stigma: The Impact of Adoption Issues on Lesbian and Gay Adoptive Parents - Carol A. Boyer 16. The Importance of Kinship Relationships for Children in Foster Care - Kathy Doyle 17. School Issues and Adoption: Academic Considerations and Adaptation at School - Francine Fishman and Elliotte Sue Harrington Part V: Training and Education for Adoption Therapy Competence - Amanda L. Baden 18. Introduction to Adoption for Mental Health Professionals - Joyce Maguire Pavao 19. Counseling Adoption Triad Members: Making a Case for Adoption Training for Counselors and Clinical Psychologists - Theresa Porch 20. Psycholgists′ Self-Reported Adoption Knowledtge and the Need for More Adoption Education - Daniel A. Sass and Douglas B. Henderson Part VI: Research Findings in Adoption Work - Rafael A. Javier 21. Research Contributions: Strengthening Services for Members of the Adoption Triad - Madelyn Freundlich 22. Birthmothers and Subsequent Children: The Role of Personality Traits and Attachment History - Mary J. Carr 23. Identity, Psychological Adjustment, Culture, and Race: Issues for Transracial Adoptees and the Cultural-Racial Identity Model - Amanda L. Baden 24. Adoptees′ and Birth Parents′ Therapeutic Experiences Related to Adoption - Douglas B. Henderson, Daniel A. Sass, and Jeanna Carlson Part VII: Assessment and Treatment Issues in Adoption - Rafael A. Javier 25. Why Has the Mental Health Community Been Silent on Adoption Issues? - Douglas B. Henderson 26. The Inner Life of the Adopted Child: Adoption, Trauma, Loss, Fantasy, Search, and Reunion - Betty Jean Lifton 27. Birth Parents in Adoption: Using Research to Inform Practice - Amanda L. Baden, and Mary O′Leary Wiley 28. Relinquishment as a Critical Variable in the Treatment of Adoptees - Ron Nydam 29. Psychoanalytic Understanding and Treatment of the Adoptee - Christopher Deeg 30. Psychic Homeless Related to Reactive Attachment Disorder: Dutch Adult Foreign Adoptees Struggling With Their Identity - Rene Hoksbergen and Jan ter Laak 31. "I Don′t Know You": Transference and Countertransference Paradigms With Adoptees - Janet Rivkin Zuckerman and Betty Jean Buschbaum Part VIII: Poetic Reflections and Other Creative Processes From Adoptees - Alina Camacho-Gingerich 32. Reflections - Penny Partridge, Christian Langworthy, and Sarah Saffian Part IX: Conclusion 33. A Look at the Future of Adoption: A Call to Action - Rafael A. Javier, Douglas B. Henderson, Amanda L. Baden, Frank Biafora, and Alina Camacho-Gingerich

About the Author :
Rafael Javier, Ph.D. holds numerous appointments, including on the clinical faculty at the Downstate Medical Center in New York, St. John's University, NYU Medical School, and several institutes and family counseling centers. He is a very prolific author, having written and edited many books and journal articles in the fields of interpersonal violence, family, language and cognition and diversity. Amanda L. Baden earned her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Michigan State University. Currently, she is assistant professor of Counseling at Montclair State University. She has published widely in the area of counseling and adoption.

Review :
"Unique and refreshing in its total inclusion of the entire adoption triad experience, the book strongly supports more fully incorporating the needs of this special population in psychotherapy and social work degree programs." —P.M. Salela, University of Illinois, Springfield