Karin Malm

Exploring Motivations to Adopt

This study used National Survey of Adoptive Parents (NSAP) data to explore adoptive parent motivations. Examination of adoption motivation is important as it relates to recruitment of adoptive families for children needing homes. Findings show that families using the three main types of adoption—foster care, private domestic, and international—have somewhat similar motivations for adopting. Infertile couples are found within each adoption type and are happy with their choice. While many families adopting more than one child choose the same adoption type for each adoption, many families do not, choosing to adopt their children through different means.

A Randomized Controlled Trial of Family Finding

Background: Youth who have experienced foster care are at risk of negative outcomes in adulthood. The family finding model aims to promote more positive outcomes by finding and engaging relatives of children in foster care in order to provide options for legal and emotional permanency. Objectives: The present study tested whether family finding, as implemented in North Carolina from 2008 through 2011, improved child welfare outcomes for youth at risk of emancipating foster care without permanency. Research Design: A randomized controlled trial evaluation was carried out in nine counties in North Carolina. All children eligible for intervention services between 2008 and 2011 underwent random assignment. Effects were tested with an intent-to-treat design. Outcome data were obtained for all subjects from child welfare administrative data. Additional outcome data for a subset of older youth came from in-person interviews. Subjects: Subjects included 568 children who were in foster care, were 10–17 years old (at time of referral), had no identified permanent placement resource, and had no plan for reunification. Measures: The confirmatory outcome was moves to more family-like placements, whether through a step-down in foster care placement or discharge from foster care to legal permanency. Results: No impact on the confirmatory outcome was observed. Findings regarding exploratory impacts are also described; these must be interpreted with caution, given the large number of outcomes compared. Conclusions: The evaluation failed to find evidence that family finding improves the outcomes of older youth at risk of emancipation from foster care.

Experimental Evaluation of a Child-Focused Adoption Recruitment Program for Children and Youth in Foster Care

This article describes the randomized controlled trial evaluation of the Wendys Wonderful Kids (WWK) adoption recruitment program. Based on data describing 956 children served by 21 agencies in 18 states, children served by WWK are found to be 1.7 times more likely to be adopted than children in the control group. Impacts were larger among older children, and children with psychological disorders, than other children. Implications for child welfare agencies and administrators are discussed.