Well-functioning Families for Adoptive and Foster Children. Rev. ed.

J.S. Frideres is Associate Dean (Research) of the Faculty of Social
Sciences at the University of Calgary and co-author of Prairie
Builders.

The authors present the results of a five-year research project (The
Foster/Adoption System Training Project) involving three
“experimental” and two “comparison” child-placement agencies in
Ontario. Staff at the experimental agencies underwent a training program
for placing “special needs” children, while the comparison did not.
Data on family and child functioning were then collected at three points
in time.

The results do not show a clear difference between the two groups. Nor
do the data support (in either case) the hypothesis that preplacement
levels of family functions would be regained by 18 months after
placement. The results show that the placement of a special needs child
has long-term impacts on family functioning. No comparative data of
impacts on a biological child are available. The overall results of the
study show, nevertheless, that all special needs children placed for
adoption improved in one or more areas of functioning, (i.e., physical,
emotional, social). These findings suggest the importance of permanency
placement.

This cutting-edge research demonstrates the need for longitudinal
family studies. It also demonstrates the need for specialized training
for social workers. Organizations dealing with children also need to be
cognizant of the impact of nonpermanent placement.

The authors develop a conceptual model of the family comprising three
subsystems—marital, parent-child, and sibling. They argue that before
a child is placed in a home, the child placement officer needs to assess
how these three subsystems interrelate. Case studies of various
functional and nonfunctional families are presented to illustrate this
model.

While the overall contents are heuristic and illuminating, there are
two problems with this book. First, the lack of detailed methodological
procedures and data collection forces the reader to accept the word of
the authors. There is no “hard” data to test the authors’ model.
Second, all references are gender-specific to females. This suggests
that gender is an irrelevant variable in child adoptation; an untenable
position today. Notwithstanding this, the book is an excellent report on
a complex research project.