Key Findings
The Minnesota/Texas Adoption Project (MTARP) was launched in order to
contribute to our understanding of relationships and developmental outcomes
for children in adoptive kinship networks that vary in degree of contact
between the child’s birth relatives and adoptive family members. Although
much is known about traditional family environments that lead to healthy
outcomes for children and youth, we lack adequate scientific understanding
of the basic processes in complex families, including adoptive and birth
families, and how they are connected to psychological and social outcomes.
Research on adoptive and birth families is important because adoption
touches many lives: almost two-thirds of Americans have personal experience
with adoption through their own family or close friends.
This document highlights our key findings to date. “Wave 1” refers to
data collected when the children in the study were between the ages of 4 –
12; “Wave 2” refers to data collected 8 years after Wave 1, when the target
children were adolescents, ages 12 - 20. This section first addresses
variations in openness arrangements and relationships within the adoptive
kinship network. In our sample of 190 adoptive families and 169
birthmothers, what kind of adoption arrangements did we find, and how did
they work? Second, it focuses on individual outcomes for adopted children
and adolescents, adoptive parents, and birth mothers by looking at issues
such as adjustment, self-esteem, and identity. For complete information
about any of the findings, please refer to the specific publications cited.
Relationships within the Adoption
Kinship Network
Outcomes for Adopted Children and
Adolescents
Outcomes for Birthmothers
Outcomes for Adoptive Parents
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Grief ResolutionBirthmothers in stopped mediated adoptions showed
the highest degree of unresolved adoption-related grief and loss at Wave 1
(Christian, McRoy, Grotevant, & Bryant, 1997). At both Wave 1 and Wave 2,
birthmothers in fully disclosed adoptions had lower adoption-related grief
and loss than those in confidential adoption. There were no significant
differences by openness level associated with birthmother regret about the
decision to place. When birthmothers’ level of openness was controlled, as
satisfaction with openness increased, birthmothers’ current global level of
grief decreased.
Other Relationships
Between the times of the Wave 1 and Wave 2 interviews, 49 birthmothers
(39.2%) had contact with the birthfather of the adopted youth. At Wave 2,
more birthmothers reported feeling negative or very negative about the
birthfather than reported feeling positive or very positive about him; a
small number of birthmothers felt neutral or ambivalent.
At Wave 2, most birthmothers indicated that placing a child for adoption
had no effect or a consistently positive effect on their relationships with
their current romantic partner or spouse. The majority of the birthmothers’
romantic partners were not directly involved in contact with the adoptive
family or adopted youth. However, even when openness level was controlled,
birthmothers whose partners had higher levels of participation in the
adoption were more satisfied on average than those who had lower levels of
participation (McRoy, Ayers-Lopez, Henney, Christian, & Gossman, 2001).
Adjustment and Mental Health
Birthmother mental health, as measured by the Brief Symptom Inventory at
Wave 2, was not related to level of openness or frequency of contact.
