Overview!

This blog assignment has been difficult but yet very informative for me.  I learned a lot about the topic of adopting and the psychological and emotional effects it has on children.  I was able to find a lot of different information from various different viewpoints.   I think some of the benefits of focusing on a topic in phases was it was easier to break it down and it didn't seem overbearing.  I think in some ways I will approach the way I learn about topics differently because of this assignment.  One big way is I will look at the credibility of the source a lot better now than I would've ever have before.  I think I will also look more into the source as a whole to better widen my knowledge.  It has made me more confident in my ability to discuss topics with others because it has given me the chance to strengthen my ability to research topics. I will be more willing to discuss them since I am better able to research them.  The most valuable thing I've learned about research is that you need to be thorough when looking at sources.  Before, I wasn't going very deep into my research and now I have the skills needed to be able to find sources and to broaden my knowledge in a topic.

The source I chose for this section of my research is a book titled "The Psychology of Adoption."  It is by David Brodzinsky and I found it in the Google Scholar database.  I find this source credible because there is an extensive list of contributors.  It does not give a works cited page but that is only because there are only certain pages being shown.  The information found is very accurate to what I have found in my other research as well.  I researched the author and he has written a couple books on adoption, so he himself is very credible.  I focused on one section in chapter one to look more closely at. The section is titled "Appraisal of loss among adopted children: Developmental Changes."  This source is good for my research because it helps me look at the effects of adoption on younger children and not just older children.  It gives a good base for why adopted children when they're older have psychological and emotional disorders.  It helps me expand and look into the idea of loss when children and teens are adopted.

The section starts off by talking about children being placed in adoptive homes when they are young is not alone the main cause of "loss" in the child.  It then goes on to discuss that when the child is preschool age and their parents begin to tell them they are adopted, it does not affect them adversely.  Most times, they're excited to be adopted and loved.  When the adopted children approach the elementary school age there thoughts begin to shift.  As children grow older they begin to realize and think about the idea of loss.  This idea is often a cause in "behavior, emotions and attitudes." (pg 13)  The older the child gets the stronger the feeling of loss.   At the end it states that the children until they are mature enough to understand the concept of loss and adoption it will not negatively effect them.

I think this article was very helpful in my research.  I only focused on a part of it for this entry but as a whole the book is full of very useful information regarding adoption.  I liked that it talked about young children and not being able to grasp the concept of loss.  The older the child is the more they are able to comprehend that they were adopted and the more they may begin to remember things that have happened to them before.  This chapter focused more on children being adopted from birth but it showed that they too may struggle with the idea of being given up.  Thus, giving off a negative effect when it comes to things of a psychological nature.

The article I have chosen to use as my source for this entry is called "Aspects of adoption and foster care."  It is written by Lita Linzer Schwartz for the Journal of Psychiatry & Law.  It was found on EBSCO's database.  This source is credible for a couple of reasons one of them is because of the extensive list of works cited.  It gives many options for further research.  The author also has her PHD with the American Board of Forensic Psychology.  This source is good for my research because it allows me to even go further with my topic.  It gives me more insight and narrows down my topic even more.  It also gives me a great list of options for researching further down the road.

In summary this article covers a few different topics such as children being adopted by homosexuals, social workers, the fathers role in adoption and the issues that arise from going through the foster care system.  In one section it talked about the social worker not doing their job in the placement of four boys.  They became mal-nourished and removed from the home and the adoptive parents placed on trial.  Homosexuals were also allowed to take children with HIV in but weren't allowed to adopt them.  Children who faced this were often times damaged emotionally because of leaving the only home they'd ever known.  The last section discussed the effects that adoption and foster care have on children.  Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and ADHD were two of the biggest disorders found in children.  Overall,  the idea that children stuck in the foster care system longer were more likely to have issues/disorders later in life that would prevent them from living life normally.

I think this was an extremely well written article.  It provided a lot of useful information regarding my topic and it allowed me to expand my ideas.  The most important ideas that I will take away from this reading are the idea of what foster care can do to a child especially if their case worker doesn't do a good job in placing them in homes.  Another one is the importance of keeping children in one home.  If they are thrown around as if it were a game they are unable to develop as other children are thus, meaning they can develop stress disorders which can affect them the rest of their lives.

This time I found an article titled "Myra’s Story: A Life Narrative as It Unfolds
in the Treatment and Journey of an Adopted Woman." It's a real life story as told by Sandra Rosengarten.   The journal it was found in Psychoanalytic Inquiry from the EBSCO database.   The author of this article is very credible, she has her masters degree in social work and it talks about her work as a psychotherapist in the article.   She also writes for a very scholarly journal that is bursting full of information.

I agree with this article regarding adoption and the trials that adoptees face because my experience with my own siblings confirms it.  In the article it talks about how Myra had trouble with relationships when she was in her adult years which most likely stemmed from the sexual abuse she faced with her birthfather.  From similar experience (not with myself) any type of abuse either before adoption or during mixed with the struggles of being unwanted/adopted can cause a bunch of unwanted anger and hatred like seen with Myra.  Those unfamiliar with the process of adoption may be interested to know that the ideas of neglect and being unwanted that are in an adopted child's head cause more damage in later life.  They may be uncovered when they're younger like I read with Myra when she was a child but as they get older the thoughts begin to consume their minds and they don't like to talk about it.  All in all, adoption is a great idea but it comes with many risks but in a lot of cases unlike this one the outcomes are seemingly good.

My first source this time is by a woman name Eleana Kim.  She wrote an article for "Anthropological Quarterly."  It was a book review that she did on a book called Belonging in an Adopted World: Race, Identity, and Transnational Adoption.  I found this article in the EBSCO database.  I think this source is credible because her references are all very solid.  She had to have looked into her references quite a bit in order to back up the parts she added to her review.  The journal is also from George Washington Institute for Ethnographic Research which I then looked into myself and discovered that it is indeed very credible.  This source is important for my topic because it also brings the idea of interracial adoption into play.  It shows a semi-different side to the issue and helps me to think about things I might not have before.  It also gives me a book that I can then go read and use for my research as well.

The author of this article starts out by talking about some questions that are raised throughout the book.  The author then goes on to say how the first half of the book is a complex exploration are produced in transnational adoption.  She then moves on to talk about Swedish and Indian social workers, Swedish adoptive parents, and adult Swedish adoptees from Colombia, Ethiopia, and India.  She tells of how the Swedish adoption rates were some of the highest in the world and that the reason they were so high is because it was done out of the idea of a humanitarian mission. The second half of the book focuses on more of the effects of transnational adoption the writer tells us.  It is concluded that this book would be a wise one to read if you were looking into adoption, specifically transnational adoption.

The intended audience for my blog is families who are looking to adopt children.  The goal is for them to be able to know what to expect when adopting children as well as have an idea of what the children may be feeling.

My first credible source is an article called "Genetic and Environmental Influences on Adult Life Outcomes: Evidence from the Texas Adoption Project" There are three authors for this article John C. Loehlin, Joseph M. Horn and Jody L. Ernst. The name of the journal is "Behavior Genetics" and the database I found it in is EBSCO.  I believe that this source is credible because it lists the authors and has an extensive bibliography of sources used to write the article.  The information presented is all factual.  It is based on surveys and detailed research.
This article is useful for my topic for multiple reasons.  It covers the topic of psychological issues in adopted children very well.  It includes a survey taken of children who were adopted when they were young and then again when they were older.  It goes into lots of details about what adopted children may face later in life as opposed to when they're young children.

My second credible source is an article called "Impact of Adoption on Adopted Persons."  It is found on the http://www.childwelfare.gov website and the specific article can be located at http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/f_adimpact.cfm .  This source is credible because for one it is from a government website.   It gives a valid list of resources and it was published in 2004 so it is still recent.   It is from the child welfare website so there's plenty of articles and publications out there to help families.  It is credible for my topic because it provides a lot of useful information on the emotional problems adopted children face.  It gives a list of recommended books for the audience to read that would also give more insight.  The information would give me a lot of knowledge on these issues adopted children face.

A glance.

For my blog I decided to choose the topic of adoption.  More specifically I chose to do the psychological and emotional effects of being adopted.  I'm adopted and like most children who are have faced a bunch of different trials and have finally found myself where I am today.  I have two great siblings who are both also adopted.  I was adopted from birth whereas my sister came when she was 4 and my brother when he was 2.  Most people may think that being adopted is awesome and wonderful and don't get me wrong, I do to yet there's a lot more then what meets the eye.  I'm hoping that by researching this topic it will allow me to look into my own life as well as my siblings and maybe figure out why things are the way they are today.  What issues from the first couple years of my sisters life are now coming in to play when she's a teenager?  How are the problems my brother faces daily related to the fact that his birthparents lived on the streets for the first two years of his life?

I already know a great deal about the emotional and psychological issues that come with adoption due to the fact that I've lived it and am living it every day with my family.  It's a topic close to my heart and I'm hoping by digging deeper and actually researching it will give me insight as to how to help my siblings.  My blog is open to whoever would like to know more, as well as anyone who's adopted and their families.  If you're looking to adopt in the future it might also be good to know about what dilemmas may come into play later in life.

I hope that this will give you a look into my own life as well as provide you with useful information about adoption and the positive and negative sides of it. :)

Oh, and my blog title has nothing to do with what I'm writing about, I just love Jesus.