Frank A. Biafora & Alina Camacho-Gingerich 
Handbook of Adoption 
Implications for Researchers, Practitioners, and Families

While most mental health and behavioral health professionals have encountered adoption triad members—birth parents, adoptive parents, and adopted persons—in their clinical practice, the vast majority have had no formal or informal training on adoption issues. The Handbook of Adoption: Implications for Researchers, Practitioners, and Families is the first book to specifically address the many dimensions of adoption-related issues which can and do affect adoption triad members, specifically in the United States.

Key Features:  

• Includes contributions from nationally known experts: Prominent authors who are directly involved in adoption-related research and practice provide insight from personal and professional experience. Theory and real-life examples come together in the ‘Treatment Issues’ and in the ‘Training and Education’ sections of each chapter.


• Reviews the major theoretical, historical, and research issues of adoption: The book begins by addressing the historical and theoretical issues surrounding adoption, thus providing the reader with a comprehensive review of the adoption landscape from past to present and setting the stage for topics addressed in the remainder of the book.


• Reflects upon many issues affecting adoption triad members: The contributing authors address issues pertaining to transracial adoption; special issues in adoption such as foster care, single parents, and special needs; training and education issues; assessment and treatment issues; and much more.

Intended Audience:  

This extensive resource is designed for researchers, practitioners, students and families interested in learning more about and working with adoption triad members. It will be particularly relevant in counselor education programs, departments of social work and policy, and marriage and family counseling programs which emphasize developing clinical skills with a variety of clients.

Tabla de materias

Foreword – David Brodzinsky

1. Breaking the Seal: Taking Adoption Issues to the Academic and Professional Communities – Rafael A. Javier, Douglas B. Henderson, Amanda L. Baden, Frank Biafora, and Alina Camacho-Gingerich

Part I: Foundation – Frank Biafora

2. Toward a Sociology of Adoption: Historical Deconstruction – Dawn Esposito and Frank Biafora

3. Adoption Data and Statistical Trends – Frank Biafora and Dawn Esposito

4. A Legal Hisotry of Adoption and Ongoing Legal Challenges – Madelyn Freundlich

Part II: Theoretical Issues in Adoption – Rafael A. Javier

5. Developmental Challenges for Adoptees Across the Lifecycle – Michael Mc Ginn

6. Adoptive Identity: How Contexts Within and Beyond the Family Shape Developmental Pathways – Harold D. Grotevant, Nora Dunbar, Julie K. Kohler, and Amy M. Lash Esau

7. The Cultural-Racial Identity Model: A Theoretical Framework for Studying Transracial Adoptees – Amanda L. Baden and Robbie J. Steward

8. Putting Culture Into Context: The Impact of Attitudes Toward the Adoption of Chinese Adoptees – Amanda L. Baden

Part III: Transracial and International Adoption – Amanda L. Baden

9. Moving Beyond the Controversy of the Transracial Adoption of Black and Biracial Children – Rhonda Roorda

10. International Adoption of Latin American Children: Psychololgical Adjustment, Cultural, and Legal Issues – Alina Camacho-Gingerich, Susan Branco, Rafael A. Javier, and Raul Pitieri

11. From the Ashes of War: Lessons From 50 years of Korean International Adoption – Hollee Mc Ginnis

Part IV: Special Issues in Adoption – Amanda L. Baden

12. Open Adoptions: Longitudinal Outcomes for the Adoption Triad – Ruth Mc Roy, Harold D. Grotevant, Susan Ayers-Lopez, and Susan M. Henney

13. Single-Parent Adoptions and Clinical Implications – Naz Pakizegi

14. The Special Needs of Special-Needs Adoptees and Their Families – Elizabeth Keagy and Barbara Rall

15. Double Stigma: The Impact of Adoption Issues on Lesbian and Gay Adoptive Parents – Carol A. Boyer

16. The Importance of Kinship Relationships for Children in Foster Care – Kathy Doyle

17. School Issues and Adoption: Academic Considerations and Adaptation at School – Francine Fishman and Elliotte Sue Harrington

Part V: Training and Education for Adoption Therapy Competence – Amanda L. Baden

18. Introduction to Adoption for Mental Health Professionals – Joyce Maguire Pavao

19. Counseling Adoption Triad Members: Making a Case for Adoption Training for Counselors and Clinical Psychologists – Theresa Porch

20. Psycholgists′ Self-Reported Adoption Knowledtge and the Need for More Adoption Education – Daniel A. Sass and Douglas B. Henderson

Part VI: Research Findings in Adoption Work – Rafael A. Javier

21. Research Contributions: Strengthening Services for Members of the Adoption Triad – Madelyn Freundlich

22. Birthmothers and Subsequent Children: The Role of Personality Traits and Attachment History – Mary J. Carr

23. Identity, Psychological Adjustment, Culture, and Race: Issues for Transracial Adoptees and the Cultural-Racial Identity Model – Amanda L. Baden

24. Adoptees′ and Birth Parents′ Therapeutic Experiences Related to Adoption – Douglas B. Henderson, Daniel A. Sass, and Jeanna Carlson

Part VII: Assessment and Treatment Issues in Adoption – Rafael A. Javier

25. Why Has the Mental Health Community Been Silent on Adoption Issues? – Douglas B. Henderson

26. The Inner Life of the Adopted Child: Adoption, Trauma, Loss, Fantasy, Search, and Reunion – Betty Jean Lifton

27. Birth Parents in Adoption: Using Research to Inform Practice – Amanda L. Baden, and Mary O′Leary Wiley

28. Relinquishment as a Critical Variable in the Treatment of Adoptees – Ron Nydam

29. Psychoanalytic Understanding and Treatment of the Adoptee – Christopher Deeg

30. Psychic Homeless Related to Reactive Attachment Disorder: Dutch Adult Foreign Adoptees Struggling With Their Identity – Rene Hoksbergen and Jan ter Laak

31. ‘I Don′t Know You’: Transference and Countertransference Paradigms With Adoptees – Janet Rivkin Zuckerman and Betty Jean Buschbaum

Part VIII: Poetic Reflections and Other Creative Processes From Adoptees – Alina Camacho-Gingerich

32. Reflections – Penny Partridge, Christian Langworthy, and Sarah Saffian

Part IX: Conclusion

33. A Look at the Future of Adoption: A Call to Action – Rafael A. Javier, Douglas B. Henderson, Amanda L. Baden, Frank Biafora, and Alina Camacho-Gingerich

Sobre el autor

Amanda L. Baden earned her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Michigan State University. Currently, she is assistant professor of Counseling at Montclair State University. She has published widely in the area of counseling and adoption.