According to the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, 33% of
children adoption from Foster Care is by a single parent. (1)
Across the country the number of single parent placements slowly and
steadily continues to increase, both in domestic and intercountry
adoption. (3)
Who are they?
Most single adoptive parents are female,
are most likely to adopt older children than infants, and are less
likely to have been a foster parent to the adopted child. (5)
Single parent applicants are self-selective. Most applicants have high
levels of emotional maturity and high capacity for frustration, and are
independent but linked to a supportive network of relatives. (2)
As a group, the single parent
adopters of U.S. children tended to adopt "special needs" children who
were older, minority, and/or handicapped children. (3)
What research has been conducted?
In a study undertaken by the Los Angeles
Department of Adoptions, researchers found that single parents tended to
have more difficulties in completing their adoptions. Thirty-nine
percent had made three or more previous attempts to adopt, compared to
only 18 percent among the couples. (3)
In 1983, Feigelman and Silverman recontacted 60% of the single-parent
respondents from their earlier study in 1977. Six years after the
initial study, the adjustment of children raised by single parents
remained similar to that of children raised by adoptive couples. (4)
Groze and Rosenthal conducted a study that
reports on the responses from parents in three midwestern states who had
finalized their adoption of a special-needs child before 1988. The
sample included 122 single-parents and 651 two-parent families.
Researchers found that comparisons of single-parent homes to two-parent
homes showed that children in single-parent families experienced fewer
problems. (4)
In the same study, research found that single-parent families were more
likely than two-parent families to evaluate the adoption's impact as
being very positive. (4)
1) US DHHS, 2000
2) Branham, E. (1970). One-parent adoptions.
Children, 17(3), 103-107.
3) Feigelman, W. and Silverman, A.R. (1997).
Single parent adoption. In: The Handbook for Single Adoptive Parents,
Chevy Chase, MD: National Council for Single Adoptive Parents. 123-129.
4) Groze, V.K. and Rosenthal, J.A. (1991).
Single parents and their adopted children: a psychosocial analysis. The
Journal of Contemporary Human Services, 130-139.
5) Stolley, K.S. (1993). Statistics on
adoption in the United States. The Future of Children: Adoption, 3(1),
26-42.
This data was compiled and
reprinted with permission by the naic.
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