Hope Connection 2.0: a therapeutic camp intervention to improve adoptive family functioning

Abstract

Children who are adopted often experience early-life trauma, which can lead to deficits in attachment, sensory processing, and self-regulation that are often manifested by severe emotional and behavioral problems. When these children are adopted, their trauma-related problems can affect the entire family system due to the emotional interdependence of families. The current study examined the effectiveness of a two-weekend therapeutic family camp intervention aimed at addressing the needs of each member of the adoptive family through using a two-group (waitlist vs. intervention) pre-post design. The results of the study indicated decreased trauma-related emotional and behavioral problems in adopted children, improved quality of the parent-adopted child relationship, and improvement in the overall functioning of the adoptive family for families who participated in the intervention as compared to families in the waitlist condition. These findings support the efficacy of a therapeutic family camp intervention to improve outcomes for adoptive families.