International Adoption Research Articles

Comparation between the processes of national and international adoptions in Slovenia and Croatia

Comparation between the processes of national and international adoptions in Slovenia and Croatia

Changing nature of adoption and need for post-adoption services: Intercountry adoption practice in Taiwan and Australia

This study explores issues on post-adoption services in intercountry adoptions based on the perspectives of adoption professionals from Taiwan and Australia. Findings revealed that both birth and adoptive families identify service needs for material and emotional support and connection after the adoption process is finalized. However, the current lack of government funding for post-adoption services result in gaps in service delivery. Adoption agencies experience challenges in funding and balancing the interests of the child and the two families. Implications for practice and policy are discussed to enhance the quality of post-adoption services and improve the well-being of the adoption triad.

Reduced Socioeconomic Disparities in Cleft Care After Implementing a Cleft Nurse Navigator Program

Objective: To evaluate the impact of a Cleft Nurse Navigator (CNN) program on care for patients with cleft lip and cleft palate and assess the programs efficacy to reduce existing socioeconomic disparities in care. Design: Retrospective review and outcomes analysis (n = 739). Setting: Academic tertiary care center. Patients: All patients presenting with cleft lip and/or cleft palate (CL/P) born between May 2009 and November 2019 with exclusions for atypical clefts, submucous cleft palates, international adoption, and very late presentation (after 250 days of life). Interventions: Multidisciplinary care coordination program facilitated by the CNN. Main Outcome Measures: Patient age at first outpatient appointment and age at surgery, reported feeding issues, weight gain, and patient-cleft team communications. Results: After CNN implementation, median age at outpatient appointment decreased from 20 to 16 days ( P = .021), volume of patient-cleft team communications increased from 1.5 to 2.8 ( P < .001), and frequency of reported feeding concerns decreased (50% to 35%; P < .001). In the pre-CNN cohort, nonwhite and publicly insured patients experienced delays in first outpatient appointment ( P < .001), cleft lip repair ( P < .011), and cleft palate repair ( P < .019) compared to white and privately insured patients, respectively. In the post-CNN cohort, there were no significant differences in first appointment timing by race nor surgical timing on the basis of racial identity nor insurance type. Conclusions: A variety of factors lead to delays in cleft care for marginalized patient populations. These findings suggest that a CNN can reduce disparities of access and communication and improve early feeding in at-risk cohorts.

The Legacy of Exploitation in Intercountry Adoptions from Ethiopia: “We Are All One Family Now”

In 2018, the Ethiopian Parliament closed its intercountry adoption program. Momentum to end the program followed reports of adoption-related exploitation including the abduction and sale of children, falsification of documentation, bribing of officials, inaccurate testimonies, and false promises to birth families. The Ethiopian Parliament also cited concerns over the identity and psychological problems of adoptees as contributing factors to the ban. This paper explores how adoptive parents, with knowledge of exploitation in their own adoptions, are responding emotionally and pragmatically. Qualitative analysis of interview data provides insight into how adoptive parents communicate about and integrate referral and emergent adoption narratives in the service of healthy identity development in adopted children.

Étude exploratoire des questionnements identitaires d’adolescentes et d’adolescents de l’adoption internationale

Internationally adopted children face many adoption related challenges, which can complicate their identity development and arouse many questions during adolescence. Nonetheless, a few studies have investigated these questions. This research aims to describe these identity questions and to document the singularity of their expression among 76 international adoptees whom answered to a semi-structured interview. A thematic analysis of the interview’s content shows that their main questions are about the circumstances of their adoption, the identity of their biological family and the life they would experience if adoption didn’t occur. For many participants, discussions with adoptive parents allow them to construct the story of their origins, and therefore, to gain a better sense of identity. On the other hand, some of the participants are reluctant to abord the subject of their origins.

An Intercountry Adoption Reform Scheme for the Principle of Subsidiarity and Transparency

The Korean government signed the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption eight years ago but still has not ratified it. It is mainly due to the conflicts over the role of accredited bodies in the phases of intercountry adoption. Intercountry adoption process in South Korea has been led by private organizations since the Korean War, which made them be blamed for illegal, unethical, or unnecessary intercountry adoption. To implement the principle of subsidiarity and transparency according to the Convention, it is necessary to reform the adoption system before the ratification so that the government shall take its initiative for the best interest of the child. Nonetheless, resources for the domestic child protection system are so scarce for the government to in entire charge of child protection who needs permanent family during the intercountry process, so it is quite compelling to rely on resources of the adoption agencies, which makes the situation complex. In order to break the deadlock, we review the standards and good practice guide for the operation of the principle of subsidiarity and transparency, analyze the bills for the implementation of the Convention submitted to the National Assembly so far, and suggest the intercountry adoption reform scheme which enables the gradual implementation of the Convention in conformity with the current domestic child protection situation.

아메라시안(Amerasian)의 존재 양태와 국제입양(1945~1975) - 베트남-미국 혼혈아를 중심으로 -

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between Amerasians and international adoption from World War II to the Vietnam War. The paper focuses on the Vietnam-U.S. mixed-race children while looking at the whole picture of Amerasians who had born in Philippines, Japan, Korea, and Thailand. The conclusion of the paper is that no matter what the dictionary, conventional or scholarly definition, Amerasians were socially an orphans to the country of birth and were destined to be the subject of international adoption during the Cold War.<BR> The paper consists of four chapters. Following the introduction, chapter 2 examines the origins, population, and characteristics of Amerasians in the Philippines, Japan, Thailand, and Korea. Chapter 3 focused on the Vietnamese Amerasian and examined its scale and living conditions in detail. Chapter 4 traces the relationship between Japanese and Korean Amerasians and international adoption, focusing on Pearl Buck, the Welcome House/Pearl Buck Foundation, and Holt and Holt International Children’s Services, representing the first and second phases of international adoption. Chapter 5 analyzes the activities of Rosemary Taylor and Friends of Children of Vietnam, which shifted the focus back to Vietnam and brought about the third phase of international adoption. It also reveals that the unprecedented Babylift Operation in 1975, which airlifted 3,000 ‘war orphans’ from Vietnam, corresponded to actually a full-fledged and one-sided international adoption operation.

Suicidal Behaviour Has Decreased in International Adoptees: A Swedish National Cohort Study

Background: A previous Lancet article about international adoptees in Sweden showed a three-to fourfold higher risk of suicidal behaviour in youth during 1986-1995. The aim of this study was to investigate whether this high risk persists during later years, beyond youth and in later cohorts. Methods: Register study in Swedish national cohorts born 1972-86 including 20,625 non-European international adoptees, and comparison populations of 10 915 non-European immigrants and 1 435 167 Swedish born. The study population was followed from age 18 to the year 2016 with suicide death and hospital admissions due to suicide attempt as outcomes. Poisson regression models of person time in the study, adjusted for gender and household income at age 17, were fitted to calculate relative risks (RR). Outcomes: Adjusted RR for suicide death in international adoptees was high at age 18-22, 2·74 (95% C.I. 1·95-3·86), but decreased gradually to age 33-43 when the risk was similar to Swedish-born. Adjusted RR for suicide attempts in international adoptees was 2·33 (2·15-2·52) at age 18-22, decreased slightly with older age, but remained higher than Swedish born in all age-classes. Risks for both outcomes were greatest, around three times higher compared with the majority population, in the oldest birth cohorts of international adoptees, born 1972-76. Risks for both suicide outcomes increased with higher age at adoption. Interpretation: The risk of suicidal behaviour in international adoptees in Sweden decreases in middle age and is lower in later birth cohorts and in infant adoptions. Funding Statement: None to declare. Declaration of Interests: Dr. Lindblad reports that he is an adoptive father, all other authors have nothing to declare. Ethics Approval Statement: Our study has been approved by the Regional ethics committee in Stockholm region (No. 2014/415-31/5).

A Consideration of Sections 249, 250 and 259 of the Proposed Third Amendment Bill to the Children’s Act in Light of the Best Interests Principle

With the promulgation of the Constitution in 1996, national legislative recognition was given to the principle that a child’s best interests are of paramount importance in every matter concerning the child (s 28(2) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996). Section 28(1)(b) expressly provides for the right of a child to family care, parental care or appropriate alternative care. Based on economic and other factors, developing countries like South Africa experience difficulties in meeting the constitutional right of a child to have his or her best interests met and the placement of an orphaned or abandoned child (OAC) in appropriate alternative care is no exception. In light hereof, the current note considers whether the proposed amendments to the Children’s Act (CA, Act 38 of 2005 as amended) introduced by the Third Amendment Bill (GG 42005 of 2019-02-25), with particular reference to sections 249, 250 and 259 comply with this constitutional right. These three sections are of particular relevance to placing a child in permanent care in the form of both national and intercountry adoption. In particular, section 249 makes provision that no consideration may be given in respect to adoption, section 250 limits the persons who are allowed to provide adoption services and section 259 makes provision for the accreditation for the provision of intercountry adoption services. All three sections are relevant to the adoption process of an OAC. Alternative care options available and the basis for determining which placement decided upon is deemed to be the most appropriate for the child concerned, are considered in light of the proposed amendments. A consideration of the current status of the child welfare system in South Africa as well as the statistics of the many children in need of alternative care, serves to provide a background in determining whether the proposed amendments meet and further the vulnerable OAC’s best interests.

TEACHING THE ADJECTIVE AND THE ADVERBS BY USINGTHE RESULTS OF THE LINGUISTIC LESSON

In light of the global economic openness and the prosperity of global trade, which has no limits to the movement of goods and capital in a globalized world, and in the front of the countries and the international institutions adoption to the liberal doctrine of liberalizing trade which promises to reach the highest levels of growth and achieve prosperity for all peoples of the world. In light of the tremendous and rapid technological development that contributed to the increase and abundance of agricultural food commodities production, the world today is facing a food crisis that prevents it from reaching a large proportion of the world's population, which threatens hundreds of millions with starvation and malnutrition. Consequently, the international reality reflects a shocking and terrifying picture of what people suffer from poverty, hunger and lack of nutrition. According to the recent changes of the United Nations Organization, about 822 million people suffer from chronic food insufficiency and hunger. Hundreds of millions of children under the age of five suffer from wasting, stunting and stunted growth. Tens of thousands die every day because of poor nutrition, and in the range of 3 billion people suffering from malnutrition In addition to all this, the global spread of the new Corona epidemic has made the situation more aggravating where expectations worship that we are on the verge of a food pandemic that could kill 300.000 person. Faced with this paradox, the abundance of production, hunger, through this study, we try to stand at the real causes of this crisis, whose repercussions are continuing to worsen at various levels, especially in light of the Corona pandemic.We also try to find effective solutions and alternatives to bypass and avoid a humanitarian disaster.

Transnationalism, Adoption and Cultural Difference: Anne Tyler’s Digging to America

Anne Tyler’s Digging to America published in 2006 presents portrayals of the changing landscape of American families within the framework of transnationalism. Her novel brings into focus the timely issue of international adoption by introducing two families who are adopting children from Korea and China. The two families are the Donaldsons, a white, upwardly mobile middle class family, and the Yazdans, a first generation of Iranian Americans. Adoptive parents tend to turn a blind eye towards the division of labor regarding adoption and reproduction between the First world and the less developed countries which makes transnational migration of Asian children possible. In addition, cultural differences between ethnic minorities are exoticized and consumed by dominant whites who lack an understanding of the history of migration and its accompanying sense of loss and suffering. While Tyler offers a critical insight into such issues as American multiculturalism, adoption and immigration, she ultimately represents dominant whites as wholehearted American citizens with good intentions toward people of different ethnic backgrounds. By delineating the process of integration which adopted children as well as the immigrants must inevitably go through, Tyler investigates the meaning of kinship and American citizenship, and the formation of ethnic identity in the transnational context.

Vietnamese Herbal Opioid Addiction Treatment Medication Heantos-4

Heantos-4 is a non-toxic, non-addictive herbal detoxification medicine for opioid addiction. It was initially invented in Vietnam in the 1980s and tested and developed further there in the early 1990s. Since 1995 it has been studied in international co-operation, standardized first into earlier versions and finally to the current version Heantos-4. The various versions have been utilized at Vietnamese inpatient rehabilitation clinics since 1991. During detoxification it has a predominantly sedative effect. It likely acts as a dopaminergic stabilizer, counteracting both hyperdopaminergic and hypodopaminergic states. Up to 2008, an estimated 9000 patients had been treated. An uncontrolled phase III clinical trial carried out in Vietnam in 2008 indicated an approximately 90% success rate during an initial seven-day inpatient detoxification treatment. This formally unpublished trial is briefly reviewed in this article. In 2012, Heantos-4 was licensed for over-the-counter outpatient use in Vietnam. The Heantos-4 formulation consists of extracts of twelve plants commonly used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). In addition, animal-based gelatin is utilized as a binding agent. The product has been said to conform to Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) standards. The patent of the product belongs to the national Institute of Chemistry of the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST). An initial hindrance to clinical trials and international adoption was a lack of necessary polypharmacokinetic methods for determining the constituent molecules and the active agents of the complex mixture. In 2020 a key active agent l-tetrahydropalmatine (l-THP) was identified. Due to synergistic effects between components Heantos-4 likely provides better tolerability and a greater therapeutic efficacy in comparison to l-THP alone. The article also briefly describes the approximately 40-year history of the development of Heantos, partly based on unpublished internal documents of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). In the 2000s a severe opioid epidemic emerged in the United States. More than ever an effective method for resolving opioid addiction is needed. As of yet only uncontrolled clinical trials of Heantos have been carried out. There is thus an urgent need for randomized controlled clinical trials.

The Question of Adoption: “Divided” Korea, “Neutral” Sweden, and Cold War Geopolitics, 1964–75

This article examines the early development of South Korean intercountry adoption to Sweden. It focuses particularly on two disruptions in the movement of children between the two nations, drawing on archival sources in Sweden, South Korea, and Denmark. The article demonstrates that South Korean–Swedish adoption was deeply bound up in the shifting Cold War relations within and between the Korean peninsula and Scandinavia in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Further, state actions and strategies during this time reveal that both governments actively utilized their Cold War foreign policy and positionality to shape adoption to meet their respective national interests. This study extends US-centered adoption scholarship by revealing broader implications of Cold War geopolitics in cross-border adoptions to Scandinavia and, more importantly, significant ways in which intercountry adoption challenged, altered, and constituted the Cold War relations and nation-building projects of both sending and receiving states.

The Legacy of Exploitation in Intercountry Adoptions from Ethiopia: “We Were under the Impression That Her Birth Parents Had Died”

Ethiopia legally banned intercountry adoption in 2018 following reports of corruption, illegal practices, and child trafficking. While the intercountry adoption program is now closed, the enduring legacy of exploitation continues. Through interviews with adoptive parents, this study explores what and how adoption-related exploitation occurred. It also describes a cyclical and iterative process that adoptive parents, impacted by adoption-related exploitation, undertook to understand whether and how referral, concerning, and emergent adoption narratives fit together.

THE EVOLUTION OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

The article reveals the evolution of human resource management concept. It consists of 5 stages: prehistory of human resource management in ancient times (before 1800); the formation of class structure of industrial society (1800-1920); establishment of the International Labour Organization and adoption of international labour standards (1920-1980); theoretical evidence and further development of the human resources management concept (1980-2000); Intellectual capital and strategic human resource management (since 2000). The article discloses the main factors that had influenced the emergence and expansion of the human resource management concept.

"The Quiet Migration Redux: International Adoption, Race, and Difference" Critique

Jessaca B. Leinaweaver’s article, “The Quiet Migration Redux: International Adoption, Race, and Difference”, the reader is presented with the issue that transnational adoptees are presented solely through a migratory view and how that is not the best fit due to the nature of transnational adoption. Leinaweaver shifts into a new hybrid perspective for these adoptees and the people close to them through her position and skills as an anthropologist rather than a demographer. Though she doesn’t make any noticeable change, promoting her viewpoint may help bridge understanding between transnational adoptees and the communities they live in.

Intestinal parasites may be associated with later behavioral problems in internationally adopted children.

At arrival in new home country, internationally adopted children often have intestinal parasites. International adoptees also exhibit more behavioral problems than their biological peers. We examined whether intestinal parasite infections in international adoptees on arrival in Finland are associated with their later behavioral and emotional problems. Data for this study were sourced from the Finnish Adoption Study (FinAdo) based on parental questionnaires for all internationally adopted children under 18 years (n = 1450) who arrived in Finland from 1985 to 2007. A total of 1293 families provided sufficient information on the adoptee's background, parasitic status on arrival, and behavioral symptoms at the median time of 5 years after arrival (mean age = 7.8 years). Behavioral and emotional disorders were evaluated with the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). Statistical analyses were conducted using linear regression. Of the 1293 families, parents of 206 adoptive children reported intestinal parasites in their adopted children on arrival. Parasite-infected children had subsequently higher CBCL problem scores than the children without parasites (p < 0.001). The association between intestinal parasites and later behavioral problems was stronger than that between intestinal parasites and any other factors measured in this study, except disability. The control group was naturally provided by the adopted children without parasite infections, but we could not compare the adopted children to non-adopted children without a defined parasite infection. We were unable to specify the effects associated with a specific parasite type. It was not possible either to include multiple environmental factors that could have been associated with behavioral problems in the models, which indicated only modest explanatory values. In this study, intestinal parasite infections in early childhood may be associated with children's later psychological wellbeing, even in children who move to a country with a low prevalence of parasites. Our findings may support further developments pertaining to the gut-brain theory.

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.

About the initiating the provision of legal assistance by a russian lawyer in the process of international adoption

This article raises the question of the initiative to appeal to a lawyer in the process of international adoption of Russian children in order to monitor compliance with their interests and protect their rights. The author substantiates the need to allow minors over the age of fourteen to conclude independently an agreement on the provision of legal assistance with a lawyer on his own behalf without the consent of the legal representative in order to accompany the latter the process of international adoption of such a minor. In case of minors under the age of fourteen, the author proposes to impose the obligation of conclusion an agreement with a lawyer on the legal representative of the minor. The main arguments, given by the author in defense of his position, are: the ability of a lawyer to be a guarantor of protection the interests of the adopted child, the legality of actions in relation to the child and potential adoptive parents; gratuitousness of the provision of legal assistance by a lawyer in this category of cases by virtue of the law. The author also discusses the feasibility of lowering the age, which takes into account the child’s opinion, regarding his right to live and be raised in a family, and legal education measures for orphans and children left without parental care in order to exclude the possibility of abuse by legal representatives, in particular, by the guardianship authorities, their rights and (or) powers.

Evlat Edinme Davalarında Türk Mahkemelerinin Milletlerarası Yetkisi

Within the scope of this study, the issue of international jurisdiction of Turkish courts in adoption cases with foreign elements was examined. In these cases, the international jurisdiction of Turkish courts is determined within the framework of the jurisdiction rules of article 40 of Turkish Private International Law Act (PILA) and subsequent articles. In this direction, the jurisdiction rules regulated in article 40 of the PILA and article 41 of the PILA, which can find application areas in terms of adoption cases, were first examined. According to article 40 of the PIL, the international jurisdiction of Turkish courts will be determined by the jurisdiction rules of the domestic law. In terms of adoption cases, the rule that shows the jurisdiction in terms of place in domestic law is included in article 315 of the Civil Code. In article 41 of the PILA, on the other hand, a special jurisdiction rule is stipulated in terms of cases related to the personal status of Turkish citizens. Adoption lawsuits are accepted from cases related to the personal status of Turkish citizens. For this reason, if one of the parties is a Turkish citizen, article 41 of the PILA may find application area. Secondly, the adoption system of the Convention of 29 May 1993 on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (Turkey is a party to it) was examined. And the effects that this system could have on the international jurisdiction of Turkish courts were examined.