Rosa Rosnati

Value transmission in the family: do adolescents accept the values their parents want to transmit?

This study focused on value transmission in the family and assessed adolescents’ acceptance of the values their parents want to transmit to them (socialisation values), identifying some factors that may affect the level of acceptance. Specifically, actual value agreement between parents, parental agreement as perceived by adolescents, parent–child closeness and promotion of child’s volitional functioning, were considered as predictors. Participants were 381 family triads (father, mother and adolescent child) from northern Italy; the adolescents (46.2% male) were all high‐school students from 15 to 19 years of age. Both parents and their children filled out self‐report questionnaires. Findings showed a moderate level of acceptance in families, suggesting the presence of similarities as well as differences between parents’ socialisation values and adolescents’ personal values. All the predictors considered except parents’ actual agreement, were found to be significantly and positively related to acceptance. Implications for moral development are discussed and suggestions for education and future research are provided.

Bicultural Identity Integration of Transracial Adolescent Adoptees Antecedents and Outcomes

A number of studies have focused on Bicultural Identity Integration (BII) to explore whether and how migrants and ethnic minorities, who experience multiple cultural belongings, perceive their two cultural backgrounds as compatible (vs. conflictual) and to study the impact of these differences on their psychosocial well-being. Nevertheless, there is a lack of research on BII among transracial adoptees, who also experience unique conditions of dual cultural belonging. Relying on a sample of 170 adopted adolescents born in Latin American countries and subsequently adopted in Italy (aged between 15 and 25) and both of their parents, the aim of the present study was twofold: to explore whether and the extent to which BII is related to adoptees’ behavioral problems and to analyze the influence of specific family and social identity variables on BII. Multivariate analyses using the structural equation modeling indicated that adoptive filiation (i.e., belonging to the adoptive family) and parents’ cultural socialization strategies are significant protective factors for national identity and ethnic identity, respectively, which in turn influences adoptees’ behavioral problems, but this relation is mediated by differences in BII.

Family and Social Relationships and Psychosocial Well-Being in Italian Families With Internationally Adopted and Non-Adopted Children

This study compared mothers’ and fathers’ perceptions of family and social relationships (marital relationship quality and social support) and psychosocial well-being (self-esteem, anxiety, child-rearing stress, and satisfaction) in adoptive and non-adoptive families. Participants were 163 Italian international adoptive and 195 non-adoptive couples (mothers and fathers) with children aged between 7 and 11. Adoptive parents reported a higher marital relationship quality, more social support, and better well-being than the non-adoptive parents. Moreover, in both adoptive and non-adoptive families fathers were less anxious than their wives and mothers relied on a broader social network.

Overall and unique similarities between parents’ values and adolescent or emerging adult children’s values

The transmission of values between generations has gained more and more research interest over the last few years. One important outcome of the process of value transmission is the degree of similarity between parents and their children, that may vary across childs developmental stages. This study aimed to estimate the cultural stereotype effect on parent-child value similarity in adolescence and in emerging adulthood. Participants were 423 Italian fathers, mothers, and their adolescent (56.7%) or emerging adult (43.3%) children, who were asked to fill out the Portrait Values Questionnaire. Parent-child value similarity was small in size among families with adolescents, and significantly higher among families with emerging adults. Nevertheless, after removing stereotype effects, this difference disappeared, suggesting that the higher parent-emerging adult value similarity was to a great extent socially derived. Implications of this finding were discussed.

Behavioral and Socioemotional Adjustment in International Adoptees: A Comparison Between Italian and Spanish Adoptive Parents’ Reports

ABSTRACT Dominated by intracultural comparisons between adopted and nonadopted children, adoption research has until now paid little attention to cross-cultural differences in the adoptees’ behavioral and socioemotional adjustment. The present study is aimed at comparing children adopted in two different countries—Italy and Spain—and at verifying, through their parents’ perceptions, the extent to which cultural context may contribute to shaping childrens emotional and behavioral problems. A sample of 207 international adoptees (127 Italian and 80 Spanish) aged between 6 and 14 years was studied. The childrens adjustment was assessed using the Child Behavior Checklist, which was filled out by the adoptive parents. Results indicated the presence of more similarities than differences between Italian and Spanish subjects: children adopted both in Italy and Spain between 3 and 5 years old were more likely to exhibit behavior problems than were children who entered the adoptive family at any other age. Some differences related to the birth country also emerged.

Parent–child relationship and adoptees’ psychological well-being in adolescence and emerging adulthood: Disentangling maternal and paternal contribution

This study focused on the parent–child relationship and children’s psychological well-being in families with internationally adopted adolescents and emerging adults. The study’s goal was twofold: (1) to analyze parent–child conflict, communicative openness in regard to adoption, and promotion of children’s volitional functioning as key aspects of parent–child relationship; and (2) to measure the relative importance of each of the above-mentioned parent–child relationship aspects in predicting adoptees’ psychological well-being. In the analyses, parent and child genders and child developmental stage (adolescence vs. emerging adulthood) were taken into account. Participants were 160 Italian international adoptees, aged between 15 and 24 years, who were asked to complete a self-report questionnaire. Results showed significant differences in the level of the quality of parent–child relationship according to parents’ gender, child’s gender and developmental stage. Additionally, mother–child relationship and father–child relationship predicted adopted children’s well-being differently, also according to child’s gender and developmental stage.

Italian international adoptees at home and at school: a multi-informant assessment of behavioral problems.

The aim of this study was to compare the reports of emotional and behavioral problems of adopted children on the part of mothers, fathers, and teachers, and to examine the agreement in the reports among the three informants. The approach employed was multi-informant, with a three-point sample composed of 75 Italian couples (all parents of international adoptees between 7 and 11 years of age) and one of the childs teachers. Parents reported higher levels of problems in their adopted children than teachers did. Moreover, the agreement between mother and father was higher than that between one parent and the teacher. The percentage of cases in which all three informants agreed on the classification of the child as being part of the clinical group turned out to be considerably lower than when only one informant was concerned.

A qualitative evaluation of a preventive intervention for parents: The Groups for Family Enrichment_Parent version (GFE_P)

ABSTRACT The traditional objective of parenting enrichment programs is to train parents’ abilities and specific competences, but less attention is paid to promoting participants’ reflection on their parental identity. These programs are generally delivered to groups of parents, though the group is rarely considered a specific tool to promote changes in participants’ relational functioning. The Groups for Family Enrichment_Parent version (GFE_P; Iafrate, Donato, & Bertoni, 2010; Iafrate & Rosnati, 2007) focus on parental identity in addition to parental competences and skills and purposely use the group of parents as an educational tool, adopting a semistructured format. In this article, we first introduce the characteristics of GFE_P, then we present the results of a qualitative evaluation of an application of this intervention to a group of Italian parents. Findings from the process evaluation showed that participants actively contributed to the development of themes during the intervention. Result evaluation suggested that the recognition of key aspects of parental identity can be an important prerequisite to the acquisition of better parenting skills. Implications for parenting programs design are discussed.

Adult Adoptees as Partners and Parents: The Joint Task of Revisiting the Adoption History

Adoption is unanimously considered a lifelong process, but adulthood and parenthood are life cycle stages that up to now have been explored only marginally. The principal aim of the present study is twofold: first, to analyze whether and how parenthood might lead the adoptee and his/her partner to reinterpret the adoption history and, second, to verify whether the attitudes of the two partners concerning adoption are similar or complementary. Thirty-four couples consisting of one adopted and one non-adopted partner, now parents, were interviewed and a graphic instrument, the Double Moon Test, was administered. Results revealed that most couples showed a shared attitude in valorizing both the origin background and the adoptive family. However, in a number of cases a divergent position emerged, highlighting the crucial role of the non-adopted partner in encouraging the adoptee to revisit his/her adoption history. Overall, the practical relevance of the research findings is discussed and future direction of research are suggested.

Internationally adopted children’s cognitive and social-emotional development during the first post-adoption year: A longitudinal study

Abstract Research is consistent in showing that international adoption is an intervention leading to great recovery for adopted children, but there is a need of research on factors associated with recovery. The present study is aimed at: (a) assessing children’s cognitive skills and social-emotional dimensions on their arrival to their new family; (b) evaluating their development after one year; (c) identifying which factors influence development, taking into account children’s gender, age, health status on arrival, years of institutionalization, and the initial psychological delay. Participants were 53 internationally adopted children (30 boys and 23 girls), aged 5.68 years old on average at placement (range 2–14). Results showed that children’s development one year after adoption was extraordinary, both in cognitive skills and in social-emotional dimensions. The children more delayed on arrival showed the larger progress over time, and their recovery was greater in cognitive skills than in social-emotional dimensions.