Volume_5_Issue_2_Digest

9 TPC Digest Yanhong Liu, Richard J. Hazler All Foreign-Born Adoptees Are Not the Same What Counselors and Parents Need to Know circumstances is that potential adoptees come from healthy parents in relatively pregnancy-friendly environments that produce healthier adoptees. The article identifies risk factors that impact adoptees’ later adjustment such as institutionalization experiences, behaviors at the time of adoption and family stress. The duration of institutionalization has a negative impact on adoptees’ physical and mental health conditions. Children institutionalized for longer periods of time are found to present with more concerns. Behaviors presented by adoptees at the time of adoption are key variables associated with post-adoption adjustment and the stress level in adoptive families and need to be given consideration by parents and counselors working with the families. Quality post-adoption care and authoritative parenting provided by adoptive parents also are critical factors in counteracting these risk factors and promoting the supportive factors for positive child development. Literature-supported implications are drawn based on important pre- and post-adoption factors associated with adjustment outcomes. The implications provide for ways that professional counselors can help meet parental needs through the use of specific interventions, collaboration, consultation and prevention efforts. Yanhong Liu, NCC is a doctoral student at Pennsylvania State University. Richard J. Hazler, NCC is a Professor and the Program Coordinator of Counselor Education at Pennsylvania State University. Correspondence may be addressed to: Yanhong Liu, 317 Cedar Building, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, yxl257@psu.edu . U.S. families adopted 242,602 children from other countries between 1999 and 2012. Multiple challenges accompany the international adoption process that counselors increasingly face in their schools, communities and private practices. Professional counseling journals currently provide little help to their readers on international adoptees and the resources needed to work effectively with them. This article includes a literature review of important findings from related disciplines such as psychology, social work, children and youth services, sociology, and adoption to better support counselors in their work with these families. The article specifically draws important applications from the findings in order to meet the needs of professional counselors and prepare them to more effectively support the children and parents of this population. Among all countries of origin, China accounted for over one fourth of the total international adoptions by U.S. families between 1999 and 2012. A comparison of Chinese adoptees to non-Chinese international adoptees shows that non-Chinese international adoptees generally exhibit more frequent behavioral and health concerns. Additional problems of international adoptees in attachment and social- emotional areas indicate that this group is an at-risk population deserving of special attention. Research shows that Chinese adoptees present with more positive post-adoption outcomes in personal-social development, academic achievement and attachment and behavioral adjustment, thus making them a particularly important group to examine in order to better understand their more positive results. The positive post-adoption adjustment in Chinese adoptees provides information related to factors that may be associated with the outcomes. A closer look at Chinese adoption reveals that the adoption circumstances may be related to China’s political and cultural characteristics. China’s one-child policy, along with the rooted cultural emphasis on sons over daughters, causes the abandonment of many infant girls, particularly in rural areas of China. One situation created by the political and cultural Read full article and references: Liu, Y., & Hazler, R. J. (2015). All foreign-born adoptees are not the same: What counselors and parents need to know. The Professional Counselor , 5 , 238–247. doi: 10.15241/efh.5.2.238