John K. Mooradian

Exploring Core Issues in Adoption: Individual and Marital Experience of Adoptive Mothers

Theoretical literature on adoption discusses what are known as the “core issues in adoption.” The original core issues have been modified specifically for the adoptive family system and include 1) loss and grief, 2) entitlement, 3) claiming, 4) unmatched expectations, 5) family integration, 6) bonding and attachment, 7) identity, and 8) mastery and control. Using a self-report survey, this descriptive research assessed the degree to which adoptive mothers (N = 104) reported experiencing these core issues individually, and in their marriages. Results indicated that all of the core issues were experienced, but in varying degrees. Although challenging, some participants reported that their marriage was strengthened as a result of having encountered these issues. Qualitative data illuminated what was difficult and supported the need for skill-building marital interventions for adoptive parents.

Breaking the lock: Addressing 'disproportionate minority confinement' in the United States using a human rights approach

• Summary: Injustice, oppression, and inequality affect human experience in all contexts. This article describes the problem of ‘disproportionate minority confinement’ in the United States juvenile justice system as one manifestation of such injustice. With specific focus on overrepresentation of African American males, the juvenile justice approach to this problem is contrasted with a critical social work perspective in the form of the human rights approach. • Findings: Available data from all but one of the 50 United States indicate a disproportionate level of incarceration of youth classified as African American in juvenile justice facilities. Although the United States federal government enacted policy reforms in 1988 that require states which receive federal funds to decrease the proportion of minority youth who are incarcerated in secure facilities, few gains have been realized. • Application: The author proposes that social workers employ a human rights approach to supplant the dominant juvenile justice paradigm. Application of human rights practice to disproportionate minority confinement suggests that social workers challenge the juvenile justice/social control discourse with a human rights/social change discourse; deconstruct the constructs of ‘disproportionate minority confinement’, ‘juvenile delinquency’, and ‘race’; challenge the expert/exclusionary problem-solving process with a dialogical/inclusionary process; challenge deficit-oriented activities with strength-based and asset-building activities; and introduce critical reflectivity into professional decision-making.

What Couples Who Adopt Children From Child Welfare Want Professionals to Know About Supporting Their Marriages

This article provides suggestions for supporting the marriages of couples who adopt children from the child welfare system. These suggestions emerged from qualitative data obtained from 22 spouses in 4 focus groups. Data reveal that couples want professionals to address the impact of adoption on the marital relationship prior to placement of children, to facilitate contact among adoptive couples that focuses on couple relationships in addition to parenting issues after children have been placed, and to actively support the marital relationship in postplacement/postadoption services even when childrens behaviors or needs constitute the presenting problem. Taken together, results indicate that it is appropriate for a broad range of professionals to address the couple relationship throughout the adoption process.

Defining Coparenting for Social Work Practice: A Critical Interpretive Synthesis

Coparenting, referred to as “an enterprise undertaken by two or more adults working together to raise a child for whom they share responsibility,” is responsive to intervention, associated with multiple indicators of individual and family well-being, and applicable to diverse family structures. Because of a lack of conceptual clarity, however, and absence from social work publications, coparenting has not yet entered the purview of social work. In this review, the authors attempt to synthesize existing coparenting definitions into one that is conceptually clear and clinically useful for social work practice with families. Implications for social work practice and research are discussed.

Opening Options: Making Field Education Work in a Private Practice Clinic Setting

This article describes the use of social work field placements in a private practice setting to prepare MSW students for clinical work. The authors used autoethnography, which is personal narrative that explores the writers experience of life, to describe interpersonal and contextual characteristics, as well as procedures implemented to conduct social work field education in a private practice setting. Participants include 1 social work field instructor and 2 graduate students who learned under these conditions. The authors describe and discuss reflections on the learning experience, and they indicate that effective social work education may be achieved in a private clinic setting.