Parenting Special Needs Children Adopted from Residential Treatment Programs (Paperback)

The current study examined factors associated with parents' psychological well-being in relation to their children whom they adopted from residential treatment programs in South Dakota. In particular, this study investigated foster-adoptive parents' psychological well-being in relation to the following factors: marital satisfaction, knowledge about children with special needs and selected structural family characteristics. It incorporated a quantitative correlational research design to answer three specific questions: (primary) was there relationship between marital satisfaction and psychological well-being among foster-adoptive parents, (secondary) was there a relationship between knowledge of children with special needs and psychological well-being among foster-adoptive parents and (third) was there a relationship between selected structural family characteristics and psychological well-being among foster-adoptive parents. A positive correlation was found in the primary question. The results of the secondary question were mixed, showing that only subscales of approach, intensity, and manageability co-exists with parents' psychological well-being. The results on the third question inferred that there was a relationship, showing that the age of child at adoption co-exist with parents' psychological well-being. These findings hold important implications for intervention and training for new foster-adoptive parents' psychological well-being.