NDACAN Measure Details

Description:

The Survey of NSCAW Adoptive Parents (Adoptive Parent Instrument) primarily includes project-developed items. Many project-developed items were based on items used in the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (caregiver instruments used with cohorts I to III), the National Survey of Adoptive Parents, the Quality Improvement Center for Adoption & Guardianship Support and Preservation State Surveys for parents and guardians and the Beyond the Adoption Order study. Section A of the NSCAW Adoption Study Adoptive Parent Instrument includes items on both the parent and adopted child's demographic characteristics as well as the adopted child's current living situation. Section B includes items that gather information on the child's adoption history including age at adoption and current relationships with both adoptive and biological family members. Items in Section C assess the adopted child's history of post adoption instability including formal instability (termination of adoptive parent(s)' rights, foster care reentry), informal instability (running away, homelessness, time in transition living program, living temporarily with relatives or non-relatives, reasons for leaving home prior to 18 years of age), and other interruptions in care (residential treatment or group home; juvenile detention). In Section B, participants are first asked about the occurrence of these events. If a participant endorses "yes" to any of the post adoption instability experiences, the participant answers several follow-up questions. These questions asked participants to describe the child's age at the time of the instability experience, whether contact continued between the adoptive family members and the adoptee after the instability experience, the family context during the time of the instability experience, whether services were received during this time, and whether the child ever returned to live with the adoptive family. Section D focuses on post adoption services and supports (both perceived as needed and received). Section E includes item to assess the quality of the adoptive parent-child current relationship as well as their relationship during childhood (closeness, frequency of contact). Section F focuses the adoptive parent's motivations to adopt, expectations for the adoption experience, preadoption training, and level of perceived preparedness for adoption. The questions within Section G assess the adoptive parent's perceptions of their family cohesion and functioning during childhood. Items within this module come from two subscales of the Protective Factors Scale (PFS): the Nurturing and Attachment subscale and the Family Functioning and Resiliency subscale (Counts et al., 2010). Section H includes items about the adopted child's current health and mental health status, as well as the adopted child's history of health and mental health problem during childhood. Section H also includes items about parenting stress and burden as well perceived impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the adoptive parent's well-being.

Citations