Adoptive Families: Outcomes for Young Adults

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): In this application, funding is requested for a third wave of data in the Minnesota / Texas Adoption Research Project (MTARP), a longitudinal study of variations in openness in adoption, which refers to a continuum of contact and communication among members of adoptive kinship networks. The continuum ranges from confidential (no contact and no identifying information shared) to mediated (communication occurs indirectly through a third party such as an adoption agency) to fully disclosed (communication and contact occur directly between parties). The proposed research links the child's experiences in adoptive kinship networks varying in complexity with key psychosocial outcomes in young adulthood: emerging independence, close relationships, and psychological adjustment. Although much is known about traditional family environments that lead to healthy outcomes for adolescents and young adults, we lack adequate scientific understanding of the basic processes in such complex families and how they are connected to psychological and social outcomes. The proposed work follows the study's participants across the transition into young adulthood (age 20-28) and has 3 interconnected research aims. The first links family relationships during childhood and adolescence with the development of close relationships in young adulthood. The second links identify pathways with young adult outcomes. The third aim connects the first 2, linking adoptive kinship network processes, family relationships, and identify pathways with young adult outcomes. 190 young adult adoptees (ages 20 - 28) who had participated during middle childhood and adolescence will be personally interviewed and complete a set of survey measures online. Their adoptive parents will also complete instruments regarding their young adult children. The research will produce a significant gain for the scientific literature on family process and child outcomes in these complex family systems and will contribute empirical research findings to the national debate about "the best interests of the child" in cases of adoption.