Friday, 14 January 2005 - 8:00 AM

This presentation is part of: Sexual Abuse

The Impact of Pre-Adoptive Childhood Sexual Abuse on Adoption Displacement and Parental Commitment: Is There a Relationship?

Purpose: A small body of research indicates that children who experience pre-adoptive childhood sexual abuse (CSA) are at an elevated risk for poorer adoption outcomes than adopted children without such histories. The purpose of this pilot study was to determine whether children with pre-adoptive histories of CSA are (1) more likely to experience adoption displacements, and (2) whether they are less likely to experience adoptive parental commitment as compared to children with histories of physical abuse or neglect.

Method: This pilot study involved a secondary data analysis of families of 117 adopted children participating in the Stress and Coping study, a subset of the evaluation of the Illinois Adoption Preservation Services. Adoptive parents completed a survey that included questions on the pre-placement history of the child and a measure of child behavior, family problem solving strategies, and the parent’s level of depression. Adoption workers evaluated placement stability and parental commitment on a 5-point Likert scale. Logistic regression was used to estimate the impact of pre-adoptive sexual abuse on adoption displacements and parental commitment (dichotomized into inconsistent or consistent parental commitment).

Results: Twenty-eight percent (n = 33) of the sample was reported to have histories of CSA, with 17 female and 16 males with such histories. After controlling for gender, age of the child when removed from the biological family, and physical abuse, the odds of adoption displacement were 7.8 times greater for children with pre-adoptive CSA than for neglected children. Similarly, controlling for placement stability, parental depression, and family coping strategies, in terms of odds, adopted children with histories of CSA (OR = .309) were 69.1% less likely to experience parental commitment relative to non-sexually abused children.

Implications for Practice: The results of this pilot study suggest that pre-adoptive CSA complicates adoption adjustment. Post-adoption services are designed to support and enhance adoptive placements of struggling adoptive families. Although more research is needed to explore, describe, and explain how pre-adoptive CSA affects adoption adjustment, it may be necessary for these services to develop and evaluate sexual abuse specific models and interventions aimed at intervening with these adoptive families and children.

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