Adoptive Families
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THE FACTORS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO PARENTAL RESPONSIVENESS IN ADOPTIVE FAMILIES by SUNG HEE NAM Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Gerald J. Mahoney Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY May, 2011 CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES We hereby approve the thesis/dissertation of Sung Hee Nam ______________________________________________________ Doctor of Philosophy candidate for the ________________________________degree *. Gerald J. Mahoney, Ph.D. (signed)_______________________________________________ (chair of the committee) Wallace J. Gingerich, Ph.D ________________________________________________ Michelle R. Munson, Ph.D ________________________________________________ Anastasia Dimitropoulos, Ph.D ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ December 1 , 2010 (date) _______________________ *We also certify that written approval has been obtained for any proprietary material contained therein. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS For the last six years in doctoral program, countless people gave me laugh, hugs, and touching memories which inspired me and helped me sustain this long journey. I hope I can remember all of these moments in my heart. First of all, I would like to express my appreciation with all the possible existing words to Dr. Gerald Mahoney. From the very beginning of my doctoral program Dr. Mahoney has guided me here and let me step to the finishing line. He is an academic advisor who always makes himself available to listen to me and encourage me when I need his advice and support. He gave me a great opportunity to work directly with children and families as well as conduct the research with them at the Center on Intervention for Children and Families. These experiences are strong foundation for my academic/practice career. He is also a great dissertation chair. Not only did he help me complete research theoretically and practically, but also he helped me writing procedure enjoyable. I wish to acknowledge my committee members. I thank Dr. Wallace Gingerich, for his willingness to share his insights into my dissertation regardless of his retirement. I want to thank Dr. Michelle Munson for her ongoing support and mentoring for teaching as well as her social work insights into my dissertation. I thank Anastasia Dimitropoulos for her contribution of the psychological discipline into my dissertation. I want to show my deep appreciation for Dr. Perales for being wonderful company at our office while I was writing my dissertation. She gave me practical advice for working with children and families as my boss as well as she gave me crucial advice for my personal life as my friend. I also want to thank Dr. Corrigan for her enormous ii generosity. She showed me not only how to be a good writer, but also proved how to live everyday life happily while helping others all the time. I would love to show my thanks to Dr. Sevenson who shares her important moments with me and keeps motivating me to finish my Ph.D program. I am a person who likes to be surrounded by people. I would like to appreciate all my friends who help with me not being lonely: My exemplar cohort 2005; my Korean fellows who share and help me with my life in the U.S.; friends who hear my research and give me ideas; and friends who call me from Korea to let me know I am still loved while I cannot physically be with them in Korea. I would like to delineate each of my friends’ names but I am afraid to omit someone accidently. Dear my friends, I really appreciate each of you. I would like to extent my special thanks to HeaJung Kim, the friend who is always in my side even when I am wrong. Most importantly, everything is possible for me thanks to my family, my mom, Nansuk Ko, my dad, JumSul Nam, and my brother, SungWoo Nam. Right now, the moment I am writing this acknowledgment, writing my family members’ names makes me cry because I love and miss them so much. I am so lucky to have my family members. I love you from my bottom heart. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ..............................................................................................................1 Purpose of Study ................................................................................................................1 Problem Statement .............................................................................................................3 Unique Features of Adopted Children .............................................................................3 Unique Features of Adoptive Parents .............................................................................9 CHAPTER 2 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK AND LITERATURE REVIEW .................................12 Definition of Parental Responsiveness ...........................................................................13 Measures of Parental Responsiveness ..........................................................................15 Conceptual Model .........................................................................................................18 Transactional Model of Development ................................................................18 Belsky’s Model of Parenting ..............................................................................19 LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................................................23 Parental Responsiveness and Child Development….. ...................................................23 Cognitive Development ......................................................................................24 Communication Development ............................................................................30 Social Emotional Development ..........................................................................36 Parental Responsiveness and Adopted Child Development….. ....................................41 Cognitive Development of Adopted Children ......................................................41 Communication Development of Adopted Children ............................................43 Social Emotional Development of Adopted Children ..........................................43 Determinants of Parental Responsiveness ….. ...............................................................46 iv Parental Contribution............................................................................................47 Children’s Contribution ........................................................................................52 Social Context ......................................................................................................60 Multivariate Analyses ...........................................................................................63 Adoption Characteristics ......................................................................................66 Independent Variables ..........................................................................................68 Control Variables ..................................................................................................68 Limitations of Previous Studies ....................................................................................69 Research Questions and Hypotheses ............................................................................70 CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................73 Subjects ..........................................................................................................................73 Study Design and Procedure .........................................................................................76 Variables .........................................................................................................................76 Measures .........................................................................................................................78 Dependent Variable ..............................................................................................78 Independent Variables ..........................................................................................79 Statistical Analysis .........................................................................................................86 Protection of Human Subjects ........................................................................................86 CHAPTER 4 RESULTS ..........................................................................................................................87 Descriptive Study ...........................................................................................................87 Children’s Development and Functioning ............................................................87 Parental Psychological Well-Being ......................................................................88 Parental Responsiveness .......................................................................................89 Preliminary Screening Procedure ...................................................................................90 Missing Data .........................................................................................................90 v Bivariate Correlations ....................................................................................................91