'Handbook of Adoption' addresses topics in adoption that reflect the many dimensions of theory, research, development, race adjustment and clinical practice which can affect adoption triad members.

An international quarterly devoted to the physiological, psychological, psychiatric, sociological, and educational aspects of the second decade of human life.

This recent volume is an important resource for instructors, researchers, and clinicians interested in the development of children who have been adopted. Brodzinsky, Smith, and Brodzinsky offer an up-to-date and accessible review of the history of adoption, theoretical perspectives that are used to organize thinking about adoption, and research that has evaluated the adjustment of children who have been adopted. —Journal of Marriage and the Family "The style is confident and authoritative . . . . this is a useful digest which, . . . . provides academics and practitioners with a neat, solid guide to key research in the field." —David Howe, in Child and Family Social Work A significant contribution to understanding the effects of adoption, ChildrenÆs Adjustment to Adoption presents major issues that affect both the process and outcome of adoption for children and their parents. It begins with a historical and contemporary perspective on adoption and then focuses on the various theories that have addressed the issue of psychological risk associated with adoption. Extensive coverage is provided on the adjustment of children and parents to adoption itself and on the psychological development including adjustment and maladjustment over the course of childhood and adolescence. Children whose adoptions emerge from such circumstances as child abuse, parental drug use, and parental HIV are closely examined as are adoptions across racial and cultural lines. This volume offers extensive coverage of theory and research on children and families and the contextual issues pertinent to the adoption process, with clinical vignettes punctuating key points. The authors close with a discussion of intervention and assessment issues that commonly arise when working with adoptees and their families. ChildrenÆs Adjustment to Adoption is a welcome addition to the current literature on the psychological issues associated with adoption. It will be valuable for professionals in the fields of clinical and counseling psychology, developmental psychology, nursing, social work, health services, and family studies.

"A valuable collection of chapters dealing with a wide range of theoretical, empirical, and practical issues related to adoption....Brodzinsky and Schechter are to be commended for helping to bring adoption out of the realm of opinion by securing its footing on a strong research base." --Contemporary Psychology

Discusses how young children make sense of the fact that they are adopted with 20 accounts of parents talking to their children about adoption.

Despite the fact that most people become parents and everyone who has ever lived has had parents, parenting remains a mystifying subject about which almost everyone has opinions, but about which few people agree. Striking permutations on the theme of parenting are emerging--single parenthood, blended families, lesbian and gay parents, and teen versus fifties first-time moms and dads. Divided into four volumes, the Handbook of Parenting is concerned with different types of parents, basic characteristics of parenting, forces that shape parenting, problems faced by parents, and the practical sides of parenting. Contributors have worked in different ways toward understanding all of these diverse aspects of parenting and look to the most recent research and thinking in the field to shed light on many topics every parent has wondered about. Because development is too subtle, dynamic, and intricate to admit that parental caregiving alone determines the course and outcome of ontogeny, volume 1 concerns how children influence parenting. Volume 2 relates parenting to its biological roots and sets parenting in its ecological framework. Volume 3 distinguishes among the cast of characters responsible for parenting and is revealing of the psychological make-ups and social interests of those individuals. Volume 4 describes problems of parenting as well as the promotion of positive parenting practices. Written to be read and absorbed in a single sitting, each chapter addresses a different but central topic in parenting, and is rooted in current thinking and theory as well as classic and modern research on that topic. All chapters follow a standard organization including an introduction to the chapter as a whole followed by historical considerations of the topic, a discussion of central issues and theory, a review of classic and modern research, forecasts of future directions for theory and research, and a conclusion. In addition to considering their own convictions and research, the chapter contributors present and broadly interpret all major points of view and central lines of inquiry.