Addressing the Needs of Adopted Teens

Most parents agree the adolescent and teen years are without question the most challenging for their children and for the family as a whole. This can be especially true in the case of adopted children who, like all teens, struggle with issues related to who they are and who they want to be. Imagine the added confusion during this crucial developmental stage, when teens reflect on their unique situation as an adopted child.

Questions that may not have bothered adoptive children in the past, take on new meaning in the teen years when they are actively working to define themselves and differentiate themselves from their parents. “Why do you look different from your mom and dad?” “What happened to your birth parents?” These and other questions resurface in the mind of the adoptive child and, when not addressed, become a source of frustration and confusion that can lead to low self-esteem, anxiety, depression and related problems.

Debbie Riley and Dr. John Meeks reveal in their book, Beneath the Mask: Understanding Adopted Teens, that though only 2% of American children are adopted, they make up one-third of the teens in therapy. The statistics support their thesis: adopted children endure a special set of emotional issues that reemerge during adolescence. Unless therapists and parents understand and deal with the wounds of adoption, teens cannot heal and become healthy adults.

Transracial Adoption – Transcultural International Foreign Adoptions

Colorado History Museum

1300 Broadway, Denver, Colorado 80203

303-866-3682

Totally free admission until March 28^th as they only have 1 exhibit currently open and then closed for a couple of years for renovations. 

Colorado Railroad Museum 

   17155 W. 44th Avenue, Golden, CO 80403, 800-365-6263 / 303-279-4591

 Saturday, January 9

Saturday, March 20

Saturday, November 13

   Denver Art Museum

100 West 14th Avenue Parkway, Denver, 720-865-5000
Free on First Saturday of every month during 2010!

Denver Botanic Gardens

1005 York St., Denver, 720-865-3500

 Monday, January 18

Monday, February 15

Thursday, April 22

Thursday, July 22

Wednesday, August 25

Sunday, September 26

Thursday, October 28

Adoptive Families

          ”What a difference it makes to come home to a child.”    

Take Our Annual Cost & Timing of Adoption Survey!

Each year, Adoptive Families polls families across the nation to find out the average cost and length of adoption, by type and country. We take your responses, crunch the numbers, and publish the final information in the magazine and on adoptivefamilies.com. Many families just starting out in adoption have told us what a valuable resource this is.

Of course, we couldn’t do this without your help. Right now, we’re gathering data for our 2009 survey and we invite you to participate. Our online survey is anonymous, and fast and easy to complete.

To take AF’s 2009 Cost & Timing of Adoption Survey, and see results from the previous four years, go to adoptivefamilies.com/costandtiming.

As a thank you for your participation, we are offering access to a variety of articles from the Adoptive Families archive, and a chance to win one of five Putumayo Kids Picnic Playground CDs, a charming collection of children’s music from around the world.

We look forward to hearing from you — and many thanks,

AF Editors

This workshop offers an unforgettable learning opportunity for Foster and Adoptive parents! It is $25 per couple and $15 dollars per single to attend.

This event will be held: Dec. 12th 2009, 10am-3pm

                                                 2133 South Bellaire Street #11

                                                Denver CO, 80222

Lunch will be provided!  Please RSVP by December 8th by calling Roxanne Thompson 720-218-1437

 Adoption/Kinship/Foster Information Beyond Culture

 Camp: Promoting Healthy Identity Formation In Adoption

•  Expand parental preparation and post-placement support for those adopting across race and culture. Such preparation should include educating parents about the salience of race across the developmental course, instruction about racial identity development and the tasks inherent in such development, and assistance in understanding racial discrimination and how best to arm their children to combat the prejudice and stereotypes they will face. Preparation also should include the understanding that seeking services and supports is a positive part of parenting – i.e., it is a sign of strength, not failure.

• Develop empirically based practices and resources to prepare transracially and transculturally adopted youth to cope with racial bias. This study, as well as previous research, indicates that perceived discrimination is linked with greater psychological distress, lower self-esteem, and more discomfort with one’s race/ethnicity. Hence, it is essential to arm transracially adopted youth with ways to cope with discrimination in a manner that does not negatively impact their identity.   

•  Promote laws, policies and practices that facilitate access to information for adopted individuals. For adopted individuals, gaining information about their origins is not just a matter of curiosity, but a matter of gaining the raw materials needed to fill in the missing pieces in their lives and derive an integrated sense of self. Both adoption professionals and the larger society need to recognize this basic human need and right, and to facilitate access to needed information for adopted individuals. 

•  Increase research on the risk and protective factors that shape the adjustment of adoptees, especially those adopted transracially/culturally in the U.S. or abroad. More longitudinal research that combines quantitative and qualitative methods is needed to better understand the process through which children, teens, and young adults’ progress in confronting transracial adoption identity issues. Additional research is also needed on the identity journey experienced by in-race adoptees – and, pointedly, more of the studies of every kind need to include the perspective of adopted individuals themselves

• Educate parents, teacher, practitioners, the media, and others about the realities of adoption to erase stigmas and stereotypes, minimize adoption-related discrimination, and provide children with more opportunities for positive development. Generations of secrecy, shame, and stereotypes about adoption (and those it affects) have taken a toll, as the respondents in this research make clear. Just as discrimination based on color, gender, sexual orientation, and religion – all components of people’s identity – are broadly considered to be socially unacceptable, adoption-related discrimination also should be unacceptable. Professionals and parents also need to be better informed about the importance of providing diversity and appropriate role models.