Kathy Shepherd Stolley

Statistics on Adoption in the United States.

Adoption is a topic of crucial importance both to those directly involved and to society. Yet, at this writing, the federal government collects no comprehensive national statistics on adoption. The purpose of this article is to address what we do know, what we do not know, and what we need to know about the statistics on adoption. The article provides an overview of adoption and describes data available regarding adoption arrangements and the characteristics of parents who relinquish children, of children who are adopted or in substitute care, and of adults who seek to adopt. Recommendations for future data collection are offered, including the establishment of a national data collection system for adoption statistics.

Relinquishment of premarital births: evidence from national survey data.

According to 1982 and 1988 NSFG data, unmarried white women are far less likely than they were in the early 1970s to place their children for adoption. The levels of relinquishment among black women have remained low throughout this period, and relinquishment among Hispanic women may be virtually nonexistent. Multivariate analysis of the determinants of relinquishment among unmarried non-Hispanic white women suggests that having a well-educated mother, being in school at the time of conception, having no labor force experience, and being older are positively associated with placing a child for adoption. Sons were found to be less likely to be relinquished than daughters.

Caregiving Responsibilities and Child Spanking

This study examines whether mothers who are also caregivers of elderly or dependent family members are more likely to resort to physical discipline than other mothers. Using data from the National Survey of Families and Households, we found that caregivers are more likely to spank their children than noncaregivers; however, among those who spank, caregivers are somewhat less prone to frequent spankings than noncaregivers. The data further suggest that it is primarily care for adults outside the household that is related to use and frequency of spankings.

The Presentation of Abortion and Adoption in Marriage and Family Textbooks.

A content analysis of 27 textbooks on marriage and the family published in 1988-93 and used in undergraduate sociology courses in the US revealed substantial differences in the treatment of abortion verses adoption as pregnancy resolution options. Abortion averaged 16 indexed references per text compared to a mean of 3 references for adoption and 7 of the texts contained no reference to adoption. Approximately four times more page space was devoted to the discussion of abortion than adoption. References to abortion tended to be included in discussions of contraception and contraceptive failure while those to adoption occurred in the context of options for infertile couples. In addition discussions of themes such as public policy public attitudes and collective social movements tended to focus on abortion and exclude adoption. Finally the textbooks favored a micro-level presentation of adoption with an emphasis on the personal experiences of adoptive parents while abortion was constructed from a macro perspective with emphasis placed on the social context of the abortion decision. Overall these textbooks--which are significant determinants of student attitudes--foster a view of adoption as an issue of relevance only to those involved in the adoption triad while abortion receives attention as a substantial public issue. Marriage and family professionals are urged to create a greater balance in their presentation to these issues including more emphasis on the social implications of adoption and the individual experience of abortion.

A historical analysis of the presentation of abortion and adoption in marriage and family textbooks: 1950-1987.

Findings from the content analysis of the depiction of abortion and adoption in 62 marriage and family textbooks published from 1951 through 1987 are presented. Abortion and adoption are presented differently over time during the period of study in terms of the amount of coverage the major themes addressed and the kind of social actors deemed relevant. In terms of both the number of citations in the index and the amount of unique page space more attention is consistently given to abortion than to adoption in the textbooks. Major themes and social actors are discussed. In addition to devoting more attention to abortion than to adoption the books treat abortion overwhelmingly as a public issue while addressing adoption as a private matter of choice. Thematic analysis suggests the influence of societal events such as the legalization of abortion and of a structural-functional theoretical orientation in family studies. Implications for teaching and future research are discussed.

An On-Campus Homeless Shelter: A Case Study in Applied Sociology and Service Learning

This paper reports the experiences and outcomes of a winter homeless shelter hosted on the campus of Virginia Wesleyan College, a small liberal arts college located in Norfolk, Virginia. This unique project ties together academics, applied sociology, and community service to provide one week of shelter and the evening meal for homeless individuals as part of a rotating winter emergency shelter schedule. More than 200 members of the campus and local community have volunteered in the shelter over the past two years of the project. Pre- and post-shelter evaluations incorporating both qualitative and quantitative measures assess the impact of participation on volunteer attitudes toward homelessness. Findings show more positive attitudes toward homelessness after participation in the shelter. The shelter project, additional outcomes, and future directions are also discussed.

Taking the Learning from Service Learning into the Postcollege World

For 10 years, Virginia Wesleyan College (VWC) hosted a week-long on-campus emergency homeless shelter during the College’s short Winter Session. The mission of the extracurricular student-initiated, student-run project was to serve the homeless, raise awareness, dispel myths about homelessness, and reflect VWC’s mission. This research is a qualitative assessment of transferable-skill development and attitudinal change of alumni who, as students, held Shelter Manager positions. Results show that all former managers who responded to the survey think about the Shelter with some regularity, and each has continued their involvement with Shelter postcollege. Reported outcomes include changed stereotypes and broader worldviews, as well as the development of transferable skills, including interpersonal and communication skills, leadership, and teamwork. Respondents reported specific examples of ongoing impacts of Shelter in both their personal and professional lives. Research findings provide an assessment of this unique engaged learning experience specifically and contribute to the literature on postcollege outcomes of service learning more broadly.

Through the Looking Glass: An Identity Crisis in Sociology?:

As the discipline of American sociology enters its second century, the debate over its goals and purpose still remains. This philosophical debate can no longer continue if sociology expects to survive and thrive as a discipline in the twenty-first century. How will the discipline be judged by a society in need of solutions to problems? Does the discipline have an identity crisis or is it in urgent need of defining and setting its direction for the future? The following symposium discusses what twenty-first century sociology might look like and then links it back to the founding principles. It then discusses whether an identity crisis exists and how sociology can better be defined within and outside the discipline.