Examines the increase in intercountry adoptions, noting issues pertaining to special needs U.S. children overlooked in favor of foreign children, social and economic effects on developing nations, and implications for mental health. Suggests legal and policy changes for the protection and benefit of these adoptees and their families, including…

Employee training must accompany technology adoption. Develops a model of the firm incorporating employee training and the uncertain reliability of the effect on labor productivity. An augmenter captures training effect; a two-state probability function captures uncertainty. Estimates for training cost ratio range from 4-10 percent, so…

The practice of international adoption of children is critiqued, using an egalitarian concept of a distributive method of social justice. From this perspective, international adoption may be perceived as contradictory to principles of social justice by ignoring the social context within which it occurs. Possible solutions are critiqued and…

Adoption leaders, parents, adopted children, and private sector partners involved in the Adoption Works--For Everyone project attended a White House celebration. The purpose of the project is to increase adoption of special needs children. (PCB)

The readability/usefulness of a new format for the final report of the Tri-State Adoption Project--involving Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas in a television promotion effort--were evaluated. How busy decision makers (two federal, seven state, and 17 regional program officers) can be informed of evaluation research outcomes is illustrated. (TJH)

Surveyed adolescent mothers who placed their children for adoption (N=146) and adolescent mothers who parented their children (N=123). Found mothers who relinquished children were more likely to complete vocational training, delay marriage, be employed after births, and live in higher income households than mothers who did not; found few…

Examined adoption actions and attitudes of 16 childless women, and husbands of 14 of the women, who applied for or underwent in vitro fertilization (IVF). Found that IVF and adoption were sought concurrently by most and that wives were more in favor of adoption than were husbands. (Author/NB)

Interviewed five birthmothers using a phenomenological approach. Discovered an additional area of grieving that has been overlooked: the lost dreams and fantasies associated with placing a child for adoption. Explores these dreams in detail and discusses implications for grief work in therapy. (Author/ABL)

Presents data on current adoption seeking in summary fashion and confines analyses to likelihood of ever having sought to adopt using national survey data from 8,450 women. Analysis on ever having sought adoption indicated that adoption seeking is primarily a function of desire for children coupled with inability or difficulty in having them.…

Examined the ability of biological and adoptive parents to cooperate in postadoption contact through the use of written contact agreements. Found that, at 4.5 years after adoption, approximately 98% of biological and adoptive parents were complying with the agreements and that nearly 94% were satisfied with the open adoption process. (MDM)

On balance, adoption outcomes for special needs children and adolescents are positive, and the majority of parents are satisfied with their adoptive experience. Predictors of positive adoptive outcome include younger age of the child at the time of placement, the absence of behavioral problems or sexual abuse, and adoption by the child's foster…

Argues that the purpose of adoption is to find suitable parents for children, not suitable children for prospective parents, and that authorized child welfare agencies, not independent adoption agents, should have the responsibility to protect the best interests of the parties involved in the adoption process. (MDM)

The majority of adoptions in the United States are now arranged independent of adoption agencies, between the biological parents and the adoptive parents themselves. Both systems serve legitimate purposes, and independent adoption can provide both adoptive parents and biological parents with more options than many adoption agencies can supply.…

Reports on the re-examination of recent underestimates of the number of adoptions of foster care children. Notes that underestimates resulted from under-reporting by states, use of inappropriate data as estimate bases, and real increases in the number of adoptions. (DLH)

Reviews "The Silk Code" (novel by Paul Levinson, Professor of Communications, New York University) that encourages questions about how to choose and use the full range of technology; and compares and applies its ideas to current practices in educational technology. Topics include divergent views in educational theory; and examples of the…