Family Predictors of Adoptive Mothers' and Fathers' Mental Health 10 to 20 Years Post-Adoption

Background and Purpose:Parenthood is an exciting and stressful time. Previous research examined predictors of parental mental health (MH) in non-adoptive families, identifying child and parent relationship characteristics as predictors. Limited research has examined these issues in adoptive families, with especially limited research examining adoptive fathers.

 Our study addresses this gap by 1) examining adopted child behavior and parental relationship characteristics as predictors of adoptive parent’s MH, and 2) exploring similarities and differences in MH of adoptive mothers and fathers. We hypothesize that wave 1 adopted child behavior and parental relationship characteristics predict wave 2 adoptive parents MH with differences in this relationship between adoptive mothers and fathers.

 Methods: Couples were recruited for the Minnesota/Texas Adoption Research Project (MTARP) from private adoption agencies in the mid-1980’s. Adoptions were voluntary, inracial, infant placements with varied levels of openness. The present study includes data from waves 1 and 2. At wave 1, adoptive parents were married to the same partner as the time of adoption and the adopted children were between 4-12 years old (M_age = 7.8). At wave 2 most adoptive parents remained married and the adopted youth were 11-20 years (M_age = 15.7).

 The sample (N=267 adoptive parents) includes 129 adoptive fathers (M_age = 46.90) and 138 adoptive mothers  (M_age = 48.75). Parental MH was measured at wave 2 using the global severity index of the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI). Parental-relationship characteristics were measured at wave 1 using the 7-item self-reported “relationship with spouse” subscale of the Parenting Stress Index (PSI). Adoptive parent perception of  adopted child characteristics, such as child distractibility, was measured at wave 1 using the sum score from the 47-item Child Characteristics Domain from the PSI.  Multiple group analyses using Mplus were used to test hypotheses.

 Results: Adopted child characteristics at wave 1 did not predict parental MH of adoptive mothers (gamma 11=0.00, p=0.748) or fathers (gamma 11=-0.001, p=0.574).  Parental relationship characteristics, however predicted adoptive father’s MH (gamma 12=0.032, p<.01) but not mothers (gamma 12=0.006, p=0.211). Multiple group analysis revealed that the path from adoptive child characteristics to parental MH did not differ significantly among adoptive mothers and fathers, while the path from parental relationship characteristics to parental MH did significantly differ between adoptive mothers and fathers.

Conclusions and Implications: As child and parent relationship characteristics were predictors of parental MH in past research with non-adoptive families, our findings suggest the pathways to parental MH differ for adoptive families. Moreover, the relationship between parental relationship characteristics and parental MH differed among adoptive mothers and fathers, indicating that predictors of MH differ among adoptive parents.  Specifically, there was an association between fathers perceiving a lack of support from the other parent and higher MH symptomology. Our findings may differ from biological families because adoptive parents undergo screening and training prior to adoption, resulting in higher than average MH. In addition, many adoptive couples are provided with post-adoption support, possibly buffering effects of child characteristics and behaviors. Implications for policy and practice related to adoptive families are provided.