Effectiveness of an Online Intervention to Improve Understanding, Well-Being, and Connection in Adoptive Families

Abstract

Most post-adoption interventions focus on meeting the trauma-related needs of adopted children through intervening with the child and/or training the adoptive parent in attachment-based caregiving. The emphasis on the adopted child does not consider the complexities of the adoptive family system. Family systems theory states that each member of the family affects and is affected by the other family members, meaning that one member’s stress impacts the rest of the family. In adoptive families, adopted children exhibit trauma-related emotional and behavioral struggles, adoptive parents struggle with stress and burn-out, and adoptive siblings experience invisibility and parentification. To date, no post-adoption intervention exists that addresses the issues each member of the adoptive family might experience or the way each family member affects and is affected by the other members. In an effort to meet this need, an online, self-paced, post-adoption family intervention, called the Connected Family Series, was created that focuses on bringing awareness to the needs of each member of the adoptive family and improving the way families connect and communicate together. Both the intervention’s content and structure – an accessible, online, self-paced format involving all family members – are novel approaches to post-adoption intervention. The current study examined the effectiveness of the intervention by using a mixed-method, delayed waitlist-control, randomized pre-post design to capture potential change within individuals, dyads, and the family system. Adoptive families (n = 148) from 38 states and 8 other countries participated in the study. Results revealed the relative effectiveness of the intervention (compared to a waitlist control) to improve parents’ awareness and understanding of their families’ struggles, parents’ and children’s well-being, the parent-child relationship, and cohesion and connection in the adoptive family system. The findings highlight an innovative way to meet the nationwide need for post-adoption services through the development of accessible, online interventions, and demonstrate the need for supportive services that use a family systems lens to meet the needs of all members of adoptive families, not just adopted children.