The American journal of orthopsychiatry
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Am J Orthopsychiatry · Jan 2014
Parent adjustment over time in gay, lesbian, and heterosexual parent families adopting from foster care.
Although increasing numbers of gay and lesbian individuals and couples are adopting children, gay men and lesbian women continue to face increased scrutiny and legal obstacles from the child welfare system. To date, little research has compared the experiences of gay or lesbian and heterosexual adoptive parents over time, limiting conceptual understandings of the similarities they share and the unique challenges that gay and lesbian adoptive parents may face. This study compared the adoption satisfaction, depressive symptoms, parenting stress, and social support at 2, 12, and 24 months postplacement of 82 parents (60 heterosexual, 15 gay, 7 lesbian) adopting children from foster care in Los Angeles County. ⋯ On average, parents in both household types reported significant increases in adoption satisfaction and maintained low, nonclinical levels of depressive symptoms and parenting stress over time. Across all family types, greater parenting stress was associated with more depressive symptoms and lower adoption satisfaction. Results indicated many similarities between gay or lesbian and heterosexual adoptive parents, and highlight a need for services to support adoptive parents throughout the transition to parenthood to promote their well-being. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).
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Am J Orthopsychiatry · Jan 2014
Discrimination, developmental science, and the law: addressing dramatic shifts in civil rights jurisprudence.
The civil rights movement fostered dramatic shifts in legal responses to discrimination based on race, gender, and a host of other group characteristics. The legal system now evinces yet another dramatic shift, as it moves from considering difference to focusing on neutrality, from efforts that seek to counter subjugation to those that adopt a "color-blind" approach. The shifting approach already has reached laws regulating responses to the group that spurred massive civil rights reform: minority youth. ⋯ Using that understanding, the analysis details how the legal system can benefit from that research and better address discrimination in light of dramatic changes in law. The article articulates the need to address discrimination by recognizing and enlisting the law's inculcative powers through multiple sites of inculcation, ranging from families, schools, health and justice systems to religious and community groups. The discussion concludes with brief suggestions for reform benefiting from understandings of prejudice and its expression.