Adoption with contact: a study of adoptive parents and the impact of continuing contact with families of origin

Adoption practice has seen an increase in adoptive families where contact continues with families of origin. This study, based on responses from adoptive parents at least two years after placement, aims to enhance understanding of the meaning of these experiences for adoptive parents. Data from thirty questionnaire responses indicate that attitudes change, while there are gender differences in the degree of comfort with contact. Fifteen adopters participated in follow-up interviews. The analysis has considered (1) the impact on parenthood, exploring themes of control, entitlement to parent, communication, bonding and ownership, and (2) relationships between adoptive and birth parents, exploring themes of fear, anger and blame, competition and empathy. The findings suggest that passage of time and a greater sense of control assist in establishing confidence, while a more empathic view towards birth mothers develops. This has emotional costs to the adoptive mother. The implications for practice are discussed.     

Expecting More in Relationships – Implications of Relational Entitlement

Abstract

Sense of relational entitlement refers to what individuals’ believe they “should” expect from their romantic partner. When expectations are both unrealistic and not met by one’s partner, there is a potential for adverse consequences. Researchers surveyed 195 female participants between the ages 18-60. The study examined the influence of one’s sense of relational entitlement with varying conflict strategies. The findings revealed that extreme forms of one’s sense of relational entitlement was associated with conflict strategies like verbal aggression, and control & domination. Thus, one’s sense of relational entitlement appears to play a significant role in how individuals handle conflict.     

Do higher-class individuals feel more entitled? The role of system-justifying belief

ABSTRACT

Sense of entitlement can be defined as a pervasive sense that one deserves more and is entitled to more than others. Two studies examined the relationship between social class and sense of entitlement and how this relationship is moderated by system-justifying belief (SJB) in China. In Study 1, we conducted a survey among adults (N = 669) with results showing that social class was positively correlated with sense of entitlement for those endorsing SJB, but negatively correlated with sense of entitlement for those opposing SJB. In Study 2, we conducted an experiment among undergraduates (N = 128) with both social class and SJB being primed and the results replicated the pattern: the positive effect of primed higher social class on pay entitlement existed only for those primed with high SJB, and was dampened for those primed with low SJB. Therefore, higher-class individuals do not necessarily feel more entitled, and SJB may play an important role in shaping their sense of entitlement.     

The sense of entitlement in romantic relationships: ethnic and religious aspects

One’s sense of entitlement is activated and influences one’s interactions and attitudes in a wide range of contexts, but it rather seems especially relevant in the context of the romantic relationship, as this particular type of relationship serves as a unique meeting point between needs, wishes, and expectations. While a number of studies have indicated that both exaggerated and restricted forms of sense of entitlement in couple relationships seem to be maladaptive and put people at risk for emotional problems, the core question of the current study dealt with the possible contribution of ethnic and religious aspects. As expected, ethnicity was shown to be a predictor of relational entitlement. Israeli Arabs were higher on inflated and restricted senses of entitlement than Israeli Jews were. Findings also indicated that among the Jewish sector, young religious Jews were higher on restricted sense of entitlement and lower on assertive sense of entitlement than were young secular Jews. Findings were discussed in terms of the unique situation of the Arab minority in Israel as well as the role of religious values in shaping the sense of relational entitlement in couple relationships.     

The association between parent-child conflict and adolescent conduct problems over time: results from a longitudinal adoption study

A handful of prior adoption studies have confirmed that the cross-sectional relationship between child conduct problems and parent-child conflict at least partially originates in the shared environment. However, as the direction of causation between parenting and delinquency remains unclear, this relationship could be better explained by the adolescent's propensity to elicit conflictive parenting, a phenomenon referred to as an evocative gene-environment correlation. In the current study, the authors thus examined the prospective relationship between conduct problems and parent-child conflict in a sample of adoptive families. Participants included 672 adolescents in 405 adoptive families assessed at 2 time points roughly 4 years apart. Results indicated that parent-child conflict predicts the development of conduct problems, whereas conduct problems do not predict increases in parent-child conflict. Such findings suggest that evocative gene-environment correlations are highly unlikely to be an explanation of prior shared environmental effects during adolescence. Moreover, because the adolescents in this study do not share genes with their adoptive parents, the association between conduct problems and parent-child conflict is indicative of shared environmental mediation in particular. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Sense of Entitlement in Couple Relationships: An Attachment Theory Perspective

Our sense of entitlement is activated and influences our interactions and attitudes in a wide range of contexts, but it seems to have special relevance to couple relationships, as these intimate relationships serve as a unique meeting point between needs, wishes, and expectations. Emphasis is placed on the connection between one's sense of entitlement in a romantic relationship and early experiences of entitlement in the context of relationships with primary caregivers. An understanding of the development of normal and pathological senses of entitlement is suggested based on attachment theory; according to this understanding, one's sense of entitlement is conceived as part of internal working models and thus is closely related to one's specific attachment style. Two clinical illustrations that show the effects of the partners' sense of entitlement on their relationship are presented and discussed in connection with early attachments.     

Father Absence and the Attitude of Entitlement

Father absence in American families is a recent, widespread phenomenon. Empirical research comparing single-parent, usually mother-headed families, with two-parent families has demonstrated various negative outcomes for children in single-parent homes. Many of these symptoms, such as deficits in cognitive and social competence, as well as internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems, have underlying psychodynamic bases in disturbances in object relations, separation-individuation, aggression, and sexual identity, all of which influence personal identity and self cohesion. These disturbances stem from the lack of certain functions performed by a dependable, nurturing father-figure, as well as the reaction of the mother to this absence. If the mother's reacts to this loss with over-investment and over-valuation of the child for her own narcissistic needs, the child may feel special, but also, paradoxically, deprived. These experiences result in shame and suffering for the child, prompting resentment and anger, in having been deprived of father support. In some individuals this may lead to a sense of entitlement, that is, the attitude of having unjustly endured special suffering and thus deserving special consideration.     

Adoptive versus Mixed Families: Child Adjustment,Parenting Stress and Family Environment

Recent research in adoption has considered the factors and processes that underlie the adjustment of children and families. However, little research has been conducted on certain types of adoptive families, specifically on families with both adoptive and biological children often designated as mixed families. This subject is addressed by the present study which also analyzes the association between the type of adoptive family and children’s outcomes—prosocial and problem behavior—parenting stress and the relational family environment. It also examines whether children’s gender, age at adoption and the number of children in the home moderate these effects. 102 parents of adoptive children (ACF) 33 parents of both adoptive and biological children (ABCF) and 102 parents of biological children (BCF) participated in the study. Target-children were aged from 6 to 12 years. The Portuguese versions of the SDQ-P, PSI-SF and FES (Interpersonal Relationship dimension) were used. Results showed that the type of adoptive family—ACF and ABCF—significantly explained the variance of children’s behavioral problems and parenting stress. The child’s gender was shown to moderate the relationship between ACF parents and their perception of child’s prosocial behavior. The results give relevant clues as to the importance of distinct outcomes in adoptive families—ACF and ABCF—compared to families with only biological children and should, therefore, be a resource for professionals involved in the adopters’ suitability assessment and adoption intervention.     

Are associations between parental divorce and children's adjustment genetically mediated? An adoption study

The hypothesis that the association between parental divorce and children's adjustment is mediated by genetic factors was examined in the Colorado Adoption Project, a prospective longitudinal study of 398 adoptive and biological families. In biological families, children who experienced their parents' separation by the age of 12 years exhibited higher rates of behavioral problems and substance use, and lower levels of achievement and social adjustment, compared with children whose parents' marriages remained intact. Similarly, adopted children who experienced their (adoptive) parents' divorces exhibited elevated levels of behavioral problems and substance use compared with adoptees whose parents did not separate, but there were no differences on achievement and social competence. The findings for psychopathology are consistent with an environmentally mediated explanation for the association between parent divorce and children's adjustment; in contrast, the findings for achievement and social adjustment are consistent with a genetically mediated explanation involving passive genotype-environment correlation.     

Conceptual Analysis and Philosophical Naturalism

Entitlement is conceived as a kind of positive epistemic status, attaching to certain propositions, that involves no cognitive or intellectual accomplishment on the part of the beneficiary—a status that is in place by default. In this paper I will argue that the notion of entitlement—or something very like it—falls out of an idea that may at first blush seem rather disparate: that the evidential support relation can be understood as a kind of variably strict conditional (in the sense of Lewis 1973). Lewis provided a general recipe for deriving what he termed inner modalities from any variably strict conditional governed by a logic meeting certain constraints. On my proposal, entitlement need be nothing more exotic than the inner necessity associated with evidential support. Understanding entitlement in this way helps to answer some common concerns—in particular, the concern that entitlement could only be a pragmatic, and not genuinely epistemic, status.     

Psychological Entitlement and Ambivalent Sexism: Understanding the Role of Entitlement in Predicting Two Forms of Sexism

Recent research has shown that narcissistic men in the United States express more ambivalent sexism than their non-narcissistic counterparts. The present study sought to extend these findings by hypothesizing that psychological entitlement would be a predictor of ambivalent sexism but that that this relationship may vary by gender. Given entitlement’s associations with hostility and aggression and the previously established link between narcissism and sexism in men, we hypothesized that entitlement would predict hostile sexism in men. Given that entitlement is characterized by a pervasive sense of deservingness for special treatment and goods, we expected that entitled women would endorse attitudes of benevolent sexism. These hypotheses were tested using two cross-sectional samples in the U.S.—a sample of undergraduates from a private university in the Midwest (N?=?333) and a web-based sample of adults across the U.S. (N?=?437). Results from regression analyses confirmed that psychological entitlement is a robust predictor of ambivalent sexism, above and beyond known predictors of sexism such as low openness and relevant covariates such as impression management. In addition, entitlement was a consistent predictor of benevolent sexism in women, but not in men, and a consistent predictor of hostile sexism in men, but not in women. These relationships were largely robust, persisting even when relevant covariates (e.g., socially desirable responding, trait openness) were controlled statistically, although in one sample the link between entitlement and hostile sexism in men was reduced to non-significance when benevolent sexism was controlled for statistically. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Vicarious and post‐memory practices in adopting families: The re‐production of the past through photography and narrative

In this paper, we explore how adoptive parents manage and order visual information relating to their adoptive child's birth or foster family. More specifically, our task is to make sense of the ways in which the memories that children have of their past families are (re)constructed and managed within the context of present adoptive parental concerns. Life story books have become a dominant way in which narratives of the child's past family are formed. The aim of this book is to provide the child with relevant information, objects, possessions and images of the past and to create a coherent narrative between the past and the present. Parents are encouraged to make use of visual images, consisting mainly of photographs of birth families and foster carers to order the autobiography of the child. To date, there is no research that has examined how the process is experienced by parents and children. In order to examine how parents made use of visual information in particular, we carried out two focus groups with adoptive parents who participated in an adoption agency support group. A social remembering approach informed the questions asked, and a discursive analysis of the data was developed. The main analytical focus in this paper is on how photographs, objects and places serve as active participants in the production of the adoptive children's memory. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Narcissists as "Victims": the role of narcissism in the perception of transgressions

Narcissism is a set of traits that are motivated by the desire to establish and maintain a grandiose self-image. Consistent with this conceptualization, the authors hypothesized that narcissistic people perceive themselves to be the victims of other people's inter-personal transgressions more frequently than do less narcissistic people. In a 14-day diary study, the authors found that narcissism (particularly in its exploitiveness/entitlement dimension) was associated positively with the number and frequency of transgressions that respondents reported. The narcissism-victimization relationship appears to result, at least in part, from biased recall or self-presentation. The exploitiveness/entitlement dimension of narcissism may be particularly useful for explaining why narcissistic people report higher rates of interpersonal transgressions in their daily lives.     

Self-Reported Parenting of Clinic-Referred and Non-referred Mexican American Mothers of Young Children

Behavioral parent training (BPT) interventions for child behavior problems have been based on decades of research that demonstrate links between particular parent behaviors and child externalizing problems. However, the majority of this research has been conducted with European-American (EA) families, and less is known about whether these findings can be generalized to Mexican Americans (MAs). In the current study, we investigated self-reported parenting practices that have been associated with externalizing behavior problems among EA families (harsh parenting, inconsistency, and low parental warmth), to determine if those practices can also differentiate MA mothers whose young children have clinically significant behavior problems from MA mothers whose children do not have behavior problems. Participants were 115 MA families with young children, 58 with a child with clinically significant behavior problems and 57 with a child in the normal range for such problems. Results indicated that MA mothers whose children have behavior problems self-reported significantly less warmth and consistency and more harsh parenting compared to parents whose children’s behavior was in the normal range. These findings indicate that parenting behaviors that are associated with externalizing behavior problems among EA families are associated with the same problems among MA families with young children, suggesting that parent training interventions designed to target these behaviors are also likely to be relevant to MA families with children in this age range. However, findings also indicate that parenting behaviors differ depending on acculturation level, suggesting that BPT programs must respond to variation in normative parenting practices for MA families.     

The Association Between Therapeutic Alliance and Treatment Outcomes in a Group Triple P Intervention

A growing literature has examined the association between therapeutic alliance and treatment outcomes in child therapy. Few studies, however, have specifically investigated the role of therapeutic alliance within evidence-based parenting programs for children with externalizing behavioural difficulties. The current study prospectively collected measures of therapeutic alliance for 117 families completing a Triple P parenting program in a community children’s mental health center. Higher levels of mother and father rated therapeutic alliance were associated with greater gains in parenting skills and parental sense of competence. Parental rated therapeutic alliance was also associated with greater improvements in child conduct problems for mothers, but not fathers. However, therapist ratings of therapeutic alliance had limited associations with treatment improvement. The implications of the findings for clinical practice are discussed.     

Parenting Styles in a Cultural Context: Observations of "Protective Parenting" in First-Generation Latinos

Current literature presents four primary parenting styles: authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and neglectful. These styles provide an important shortcut for a constellation of parenting behaviors that have been characterized as consisting of warmth, demandingness, and autonomy granting. Empirically, only warmth and demandingness are typically measured. Research reporting on parenting styles in Latino samples has been equivocal leading to questions about conceptualization and measurement of parenting styles in this ethnic/cultural group. This lack of consensus may result from the chasm between concepts (e.g., authoritarian parenting) and observable parenting behaviors (e.g., warmth) in this ethnic group. The present research aimed to examine parenting styles and dimensions in a sample of Latino parents using the two usual dimensions (warmth, demandingness) and adding autonomy granting. Traditional parenting styles categories were examined, as well as additional categorizations that resulted from adding autonomy granting. Fifty first-generation Latino parents and their child (aged 4–9) participated. Parent–child interactions were coded with the Parenting Style Observation Rating Scale (P-SOS). In this sample, the four traditional parenting categories did not capture Latino families well. The combination of characteristics resulted in eight possible parenting styles. Our data showed the majority (61%) of Latino parents as "protective parents." Further, while mothers and fathers were similar in their parenting styles, expectations were different for male and female children. The additional dimensions and implications are discussed. The importance of considering the cultural context in understanding parenting in Latino families is emphasized, along with directions for future research.     

How Common is Peer Disagreement? On Self‐Trust and Rational Symmetry

In this paper I offer an argument for a view about the epistemology of peer disagreement, which I call the “Rational Symmetry View”. I argue that this view follows from a natural (if controversial) conception of the epistemology of testimony, together with a basic entitlement to trust our own faculties for belief formation. I then discuss some objections to this view, focusing on its relationship to other well‐known views in the literature. The upshot of this discussion is that, if the Rational Symmetry View is correct, much of the action in the epistemology of disagreement relates—not to how one should treat those one regards as an “epistemic peer” in the sense popular in that literature—but rather to who one should treat as such.     

Pre-adoptive risk factors and behavioural problems in children adopted from Poland

Behavioural problems in adoptees have been related to adverse circumstances prior to adoption. We examined pre-adoptive risk factors and post-adoptive behavioural problems in children adopted from Poland. Dutch adoptive parents of 133 Polish adoptees (M_age = 8.7 years, range 2.8–15.2; M_ageadoption = 3.0 years, range .4–6.9) answered the Child Behaviour Checklist and questions regarding pre-adoptive risk factors, such as institutionalization, neglect and abuse. Polish adoptees in our sample were four times more likely to have clinical behavioural problems than non-adopted children. Compared with a group of children adopted from various countries, predominantly from Asia, Polish adoptees had higher levels of behavioural problems as well. Multiple pre-adoptive risk factors were present. Only a history of abuse was found to be associated with behavioural problems after adoption. Special attention and support after adoption are needed for these children and their adoptive parents, especially when a pre-adoptive history of abuse is known.     

In Search of One's Past: An Identity Trip

The experience of being “cut off,” either emotionally or physically, from one's family of origin and extended families is an experience that at times confronts us all, be we the children of natural, adoptive, foster or divorced parents. The goal of this paper is to show that a person's identity is profoundly related to, and affected by, his sense of connection to his family of origin. This paper will take as its point of departure the author's story as a foster child and will describe his successful effort to get himself reconnected to his natural family. The story raises questions about the policies of foster-care agencies and, by implication, questions about adoptive agency policy. Finally, the paper may have something to say not only to family therapists and researchers but to all of us who wish to more fully “know” our parents and our extended families.