Sibling Placement Research Articles

Predictors of special needs adoption disruption: An exploratory study

A matched pairs design ( N = 54) was utilized to identify predictors of special needs adoption disruption, the breakdown of an adoptive placement prior to legal finalization. Variables predictive of intact rather than disrupted placement included: younger age at time of placement, female gender, foster care adoptive placement as opposed to placement with a new family, and sibling placement as opposed to non-sibling placement. Minority (as opposed to majority) ethnic status as well as lower income and lower education level were modestly associated with increased likelihood of intact placement. Emotional/behavioral but not cognitive handicaps predicted disruption. Social worker assessments of level of parenting skills were highly associated with intact placement. A separate study demonstrated higher risks of disruption for younger boys (less than 9 years of age) and modestly higher risks for older girls (older than 9 years of age). Similarly, this study found increased risks for sibling placements for younger children and modestly higher risks for non-sibling placements among older children.

To Split or Not to Split: The Placement of Siblings

To Split or Not to Split: The Placement of Siblings

Profiles of Achievement: Women's Entry into the Professions, the Arts, and Social Reform*

This paper examines the structural determinants of the achievement behavior of over 1,300 American women whose lives collectively span three centuries of American history, 1607–1950. Of particular importance is the investigation of the relative effects of historical birth cohort, religion, sibling placement, social class background, and region of birth upon the career patterns of women involved in the professions, the arts, and social reform.A major conclusion of this study is that denomination and importance of religion are major factors accounting for social reform careers, while the absence of religion combined with being the first child is related most importantly to career choices in the professions and the arts. Historical birth cohort was found to be of some importance along with social class. However, region of birth proved to be the least important influence affecting achievement patterns.The data for this study are a quantitative archive established by the author on the basis of a detailed coding of all the biographies included in the three‐volume reference set, Notable American Women (James, James, and Boyer, 1971). Information concerning 302 variables relevant to a study of achievement behavior was coded on a standardized form, keypunched, and transferred to magnetic tape suitable for computer and statistical analysis. The techniques used in this research are discriminant analysis and cross tabular analysis.

Being an only child: effects on educational progression and career orientation.

This study uses data from the young men's and women's cohorts of the National Longitudinal Surveys of Labor Market Experience to measure the independent effects of sibling number and placement on a number of educational, family, career, and social-psychological outcomes as of age 24 for nationally representative samples of American youth. In particular, the study compares separately for young men and women the effects of being an only child with being the older of two children as well as the general importance of coming from a smaller rather than a larger family. The authors conclude that, while confluence theory is frequently supported by the data for both sexes, the corollary tutoring hypothesis is generally only validated for young women. The authors conjecture that this sex discrepancy may reflect a greater likelihood that the tutoring role within the family may be substantially affectively based, thus making it an activity that is more likely to be associated with female intrafamily role behavior.

Some antecedent factors in the family histories of 568 male schizophrenics of the United States Navy.

1. The frequency of various antecedent familial experiences in the histories of 568 schizophrenics from the U. S. Navy was determined and compared with incidence data from the general population, a group of 100,000 Naval recruits, and, where applicable, to a previously studied group of 392 schizophrenics from the Elgin State Hospital. 2. The factors investgiated were: (1) marked rejection and/ or overprotection by one or both parents; (2) bereavement by death or separation of one or both parents prior to the fifteenth year; (3) placement in the sibling hierarchy; (4) family size; and (5) religious affiliation. 3. It was found that among this group, 50.3% came from homes in which there was severe rejection and/or overprotection by one or both parents. Severe rejection by one or both parents was by far the most frequently manifested attitude, 34% having been so rejected, while only 9% were overprotected by one or both parents. A rejecting father was the most frequently encountered pathological parental attitude. 4. Of the entire group 41% had lost a father or mother by death, divorce, or separation before the age of 15 years, as compared with 11.4% of such loss among the generality of Navy men. Approximately 4 times as many of this schizophrenic group had been orphaned prior to their fifteenth year than in the general population. The loss of the father by death was predominant: 55% of the schizophrenic orphans had lost a father, 33% a mother, and 18% had lost both. 5. As to the sibling position, 18% were oldest children, 26% youngest, 12% next-to-youngest, and 14% were only children. All other placements constituted 31%. Youngest children slightly, but definitely, predominated. Among the Naval group 25% were oldest children, 25% youngest, 9% only children, and all other placements constituted 34%. Possible implications of ultimate sibling placement on the development of the self are discussed. 6. The average family size of members of the schizophrenic sample was 4.4 children per family. This compares with a national average of 2.2 per family. It is considered that large family membership may operate to produce specific stress situations; and mechanisms by which this might operate are described. 7. Among the group, 51% were professed Protestants, 42% Catholics, 2% Hebrews, 2% other or none. It is not certain that religious membership per se played any decided role in the development of schizophrenic illness. 8. Some of the implications of these data for identification theory and upon the genesis of schizophrenia are discussed.