When Adoptions Go Wrong: Psychological and Legal Issues of Adoption Disruption »

When adoptions fail to happen, the effects can be devastating on children and the families who chose to adopt them

What if you were an adopted child and someone tried to remove you from the family you had grown to love? In the last twenty years, changes in laws, judicial decisions, social welfare practices, and the availability of American children for adoption have led to an increase in disrupted adoptions. When Adoptions Go Wrong: Psychological and Legal Issues of Adoption Disruption examines the psychological and forensic aspects of adoption with an emphasis on how negative events can affect children and the families that choose to adopt them—and how you can prevent those events from happening.

When Adoptions Go Wrong is a comprehensive resource on the causes of interrupted adoptions, including changing profiles of adoptive parents who have new reasons for wanting to adopt. With the help of detailed case examples, this powerful book explores the impact of disruptions on the children, the legal issues of determining in whose “best interests” decisions are made, and possible methods of reducing the negative affects of those decisions on the children. It also stresses how important it is, for the professionals involved, to be aware of child development in the adoption process.

Topics discussed in When Adoptions Go Wrong include:

• children’s rights
  
• legal rights of gays to adopt
  
• tribal rights (Native Americans)
  
• open adoption
  
• individual state laws concerning adoption
  
• the media’s coverage of child custody cases
  
• types of adoption
  
• the “Baby Jessica” case
  
• the Evan Scott case
  
• the “Internet Twins”
  
• inadequate social services
  
• family court
  
• and much more

When Adoptions Go Wrong also suggests legislative measures to create uniformity in the way states handle adoption issues to help natural and adoptive parents in making difficult decisions. The book is invaluable for psychologists, judges and lawyers, social workers, and prospective adoptive parents.

Foreword (Walter M. Schackman)

Acknowledgments

SECTION I: FAMILY PSYCHOLOGY ISSUES

Chapter 1. Overview: Providing a Context

Historical Background

Malfunctions in Adoption

Introducing the Adoptive Parents

Tying Adoption to Adoption Disruption

Chapter 2. Adoption Disruptions

Types and Causes of Disruptions

Summary

Chapter 3. Other Causes Contributing to Adoption Disruptions

Inadequate Social Services

Focus on Foster Care

Other Issues and Impediments

Incompatibility of Child and Adoptive Parents

Summary

Chapter 4. Lives Disrupted

Adoptions Dissolved

On the Positive Side

Summary

Chapter 5. Effects of the Disruption

Time for Therapy

Restatement of Causes

A Variety of Effects

Summary

SECTION II: LEGAL ISSUES: PRECEDENTS AND PREVENTION

Chapter 6. In Whose "Best Interests"?

"Open Adoption" and Disruption

Professional Prevention and Intervention

Summary

Chapter 7. Where Do We Go From Here?

Preventive Measures

Laws Across the Land

Recognition of Psychological versus Biological Parenting

Summary

Epilogue

Notes

References

Index