Adult Adoptees and Their Friends: Current Functioning and Psychosocial Well‐Being*

Adoptees (n= 100 ) and a matched group of their friends completed measures of psychosocial well‐being thought particularly salient for adult adoptees. Results indicated more similarities (life satisfaction, life regrets, purpose in life, intimacy, substance abuse) than differences (connectedness, depression, self‐esteem) between the two groups. Adoptees expressed stronger regrets about 75 general than adopted‐related issues. Follow‐up analyses suggested greater variability within the adoptee than the friend group on several variables; search status helped explain this greater variability.     

Social Support and Psychological Well‐Being in Lesbian and Heterosexual Preadoptive Couples

Abstract: This study examines predictors of social support and mental health among 36 lesbian and 39 heterosexual couples who were waiting to adopt. Lesbian preadoptive partners perceived less support from family than heterosexual partners but similar levels of support from friends. Lesbian and heterosexual partners reported similar levels of well‐being. Aspects of the adoption process were associated with anxiety, whereas couples’ conception history was associated with depression. Adoption practitioners should acknowledge these distinct pathways in prevention efforts.     

Adjustment Among Adopted Children: The Role of Maternal Self‐Reflectiveness*

The maternal self‐reflective function was assumed to affect maternal perceptions of adopted children's adjustment. In a sample of Israeli mothers of school‐aged, non‐referred children, self‐reflectiveness scores were found to discriminate between adoptive (N= 50 ) and non‐adoptive (N= 80 ) participants, and affect the rate of perceived externalizing behaviors. Specific protective and risk factors that characterize adoptive motherhood are discussed, indicating their implications for therapeutic intervention.     

‘Adoption and attachment theory’ the attachment models of adoptive mothers and the revision of attachment patterns of their late‐adopted children

Objective This study examined the attachment patterns of late‐adopted children (aged 4–7) and their adoptive mothers during the first 7‐ to 8‐month period after adoption and aimed to evaluate the effect of adoptive mothers' attachment security on the revision of the attachment patterns of their late‐adopted children. Design We assessed attachment patterns in 20 adoptive dyads and 12 genetically related dyads at two different times: T1 (time 1) within 2 months of adoption and T2 (time 2) 6 months after T1. Methods The children's behavioural attachment patterns were assessed using the Separation‐Reunion Procedure and the children's representational (verbal) attachment patterns using the Manchester Child Attachment Story Task. The attachment models of the adoptive mothers were classified using the Adult Attachment Interview. Results We found that there was a significant enhancement of the late‐adopted children's attachment security across the time period considered (P= 0.008). Moreover, all the late‐adopted children who showed a change from insecurity to security had adoptive mothers with secure attachment models (P= 0.044). However, the matching between maternal attachment models and late‐adopted children's attachment patterns (behaviours and representations) was not significant. Conclusions Our data suggest that revision of the attachment patterns in the late‐adopted children is possible but gradual, and that the adoptive mothers' attachment security makes it more likely to occur.     

Work Separation Demands and Spouse Psychological Well‐Being

Using family resilience and ecological theories, we examine the relationship between partner work‐required travel separations and spouse psychological well‐being. The study examines the role of work‐organization‐provided supports for families and of informal support networks, including marital satisfaction, as factors that can reduce the risks for indicators of poor well‐being. The data come from a probability sample survey of 8,056 female spouses of U.S. Army personnel, with considerable variation in the amount of travel‐related separations. Findings indicate risks for poor psychological well‐being are greater for spouses who experience more frequent work‐related separations. Findings also indicate that both work organization support and informal support network connections are significant protective factors for spouses experiencing these separations.     

Income Inequality and the Well‐Being of American Families

Income inequality has increased steadily over the past 40 years. We briefly review the nature and causes of this increase and show that income‐based gaps in children's academic achievement and attainment grew as well. To probe whether the increasing income gaps may have played a role in producing the growing achievement and attainment gaps, we summarize the evidence for the effect of family income on children, paying particular attention to the strength of the evidence and the timing of economic deprivation. We show that, in contrast to the nearly universal associations between poverty and children's outcomes as reported in the correlational literature, evidence from social experiments and quasi experiments shows impacts on some domains of child functioning but not others. At the same time, we have no experimental evidence on how economic deprivation affects children in the first several years of life in the United States. Family environments are all important in the first several years of a child's life, when they are developing most rapidly and have limited autonomy from family, yet family incomes tend to be the lowest in these early years of family development. We describe an ongoing experimental study of income effects on infants and toddlers.     

Qualities of Character That Predict Marital Well‐Being

A growing body of literature has examined relations among qualities of character—or marital virtues—and marital outcomes. Results of past research have suggested positive relations between qualities such as generosity, kindness, and forgiveness, and marital well‐being. We expand on previous research by examining relations between three qualities of character and marital satisfaction with 1,513 respondents randomly selected from three states. Specifically, we examined the effects of participants' perceptions of their partners' humility, compassion, and positivity on their own marital satisfaction. Results indicated statistically significant, positive associations between each of these qualities and marital satisfaction, although results vary by gender. Furthermore, a statistically significant interaction effect suggested that spousal humility may be a protective factor against marital stress among women. Implications for practice and program development are discussed.     

The Nutritional Status of Individuals Adopted Internationally as Children: A Systematic Review

Since 1955, international adoption has been a way of finding homes for children who have been orphaned or abandoned. We aimed to describe the nutritional status of individuals adopted internationally and their long-term nutritional and health outcomes. We searched four databases for articles published from January 1995 to June 2020, which included information on anthropometric or micronutrient status of children adopted internationally (CAI). Mean Z-scores on arrival to adoptive country ranged from −2.04 to −0.31 for weight for age; −0.94 to 0.39 for weight for height; −0.7 to 0 for body mass index; −1.89 to −0.03 for height for age; −1.43 to 0.80 for head circumference for age. Older children, those adopted from institutionalized care or with underlying disability, were more likely to be malnourished. Though long-term data was scarce, mean Z-scores post-adoption ranged from −0.59 to 0.53 for weight for age; −0.31 to 1.04 for weight for height; 0.39 to 1.04 for body mass index; −1.09 to 0.58 for height for age; −0.06 to 1.23 for head circumference for age. We conclude that though CAI are at high risk of malnutrition at baseline, marked catch-up growth is possible, including for those older than two years of age on arrival. This has implications not only for CAI but for the wider population of malnourished children worldwide. Research on how to optimize catch-up growth is a priority.     

Welfare Reform,Work‐Family Tradeoffs,and Child Well‐Being*

Welfare reform and related policy changes have altered the context in which welfare‐reliant women make choices about employment and family care. Using data from longitudinal qualitative interviews, we examined women's experiences of work‐family tradeoffs and how they think their employment affected their children. Women identified multiple co‐occurring costs and benefits of work for themselves and their children. Benefits included: increased income; increased self‐esteem, feelings of independence, and social integration; and the ability to model work and self‐sufficiency values for children. Costs included: working without increased income; overload, exhaustion, and stress; and less time and energy to be with, supervise, and support children. The relevance of these findings for family policy specialists and practitioners who work with low‐income families is discussed.     

Crime Victimisation and Subjective Well‐Being: Panel Evidence From Australia

This paper estimates the effect of physical violence and property crimes on subjective well‐being in Australia. Our methodology improves on previous contributions by (i) controlling for the endogeneity of victimisation and (ii) analysing the heterogeneous effect of victimisation along the whole distribution of well‐being. Using fixed effects panel estimation, we find that both types of crimes reduce reported well‐being to a large extent, with physical violence exerting a larger average effect than property crimes. Furthermore, using recently developed panel data quantile regression model with fixed effects, we show that the negative effects of both crimes are highly heterogeneous, with a monotonic decrease over the distribution of subjective well‐being. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Support and Conflict in the Foster Family and Children’s Well‐Being: A Comparison Between Foster and Birth Children

Abstract: Data on 96 foster families with a foster child and a birth child between the ages of 10 and 21 years were used to analyze the association between support and conflict processes within the foster family and youths’ reports on four indexes of well‐being: self‐esteem, self‐efficacy, emotional problems, and behavioral problems. The self‐esteem of foster children was more strongly affected by support and conflict processes in the foster family than was the self‐esteem of birth children in the same family. For birth children as well as for foster children, parental support significantly related to emotional problems. For foster children, but not for birth children, more conflicts with the foster parents related to more behavioral problems. The results are compared with other studies, and implications for practice are suggested.     

Marital Happiness and Psychological Well‐Being Across the Life Course*

Abstract: Using data from six waves of the Study of Marital Instability over the Life Course (N = 1,998), we conducted a latent class analysis to test for distinct marital happiness trajectories. We found three distinct marital happiness trajectories: low, middle, and high happiness. Initial levels of life happiness were strongly associated with membership in the marital happiness trajectories and with various demographic and attitude‐related control variables. Using fixed effects regression with time‐varying covariates, we also found that marital happiness trajectory membership was associated with subsequent changes in both life happiness and depressive symptoms. All respondents experienced a decrease in life happiness between Wave 1 and the end of their observed time in their marriage, but respondents in the high marital happiness trajectory experienced the smallest decline. Respondents in both the high and middle marital happiness trajectories also experienced a decline in depressive symptoms across time. Intervention and policy implications are discussed.     

The Association of Patients' Psychosocial Well‐Being with Self and Spouse Ratings of Patient Health

Adjustment to illness is influenced both by individual resources and the support available from a marital partner. In this study of 61 male heart patients and their wives, patients' self‐rated health and the agreement between patient and spouse ratings of the patients' health were investigated as contributing to patients' psychosocial well‐being. Patients' positive self‐rating of health and also spouses' rating that concurred with their own self‐rating were related to greater well‐being among patients. The advantage to patient well‐being of shared spouse appraisals beyond patients' own health appraisal extends the growing literature indicating the predictive utility of individual subjective health appraisals by demonstrating the added value of the perceptions of spouses who share the illness context.     

Parental Satisfaction in the Adoption of Children with Learning Disorders: The Role of Behavior Problems

We sought to determine the extent to which children's behavior problems would mediate the relationship between children's learning disorders and adoption satisfaction using nationally representative data from 1,865 adoptive parents. We found that high levels of behavior problems, operationalized as internalizing and externalizing behaviors, occurred more frequently in children with learning disorders, supporting our mediational model. We concluded that it was the behavior problems, not the learning disorders, that were most problematic for parents. Implications for both pre‐ and postadoption services are highlighted.     

The Subjective Well‐Being Method of Valuation: An Application to General Health Status

Objective

To introduce the subjective well‐being (SWB) method of valuation and provide an example by valuing health status. The SWB method allows monetary valuations to be performed in the absence of market relationships.

Data Sources

Data are from the 1975–2010 General Social Survey.

Study Design

The value of health status is determined via the estimation of an implicit derivative based on a happiness equation. Two‐stage least‐squares was used to estimate happiness as a function of poor‐to‐fair health status, annual household income adjusted for household size, age, sex, race, marital status, education, year, and season. Poor‐to‐fair health status and annual household income are instrumented using a proxy for intelligence, a temporal version of the classic distance instrument, and the average health status of individuals who are demographically similar but geographically separated. Instrument validity is evaluated.

Principal Findings

Moving from good/excellent health to poor/fair health (1 year of lower health status) is equivalent to the loss of $41,654 of equivalized household income (2010 constant dollars) per annum, which is larger than median equivalized household income.

Conclusion

The SWB method may be useful in making monetary valuations where fundamental market relationships are not present.