Studies show that race, religion, the level of education of parents, whether it is a single or two-parent family, and family size at time of adoption do not impact the rate of disruption in adoptive families. A large longitudinal study found that families with lower incomes and less education continued to do well over time. Characteristics of Successful Special Needs Adoptions Parents are knowledgeable about the child. Parents who have a clear understanding of their adoptive child's background and special needs, and who base their expectations and parenting behavior on this understanding are most likely to succeed. Unfortunately, few states or child welfare agencies mandate that this information be fully available to adoptive parents.
Parents have strong interpersonal and parenting skills.
Research has found that parents who are confident, accepting, utilize consequences for positive and negative behavior, and feel that their parenting can affect the child's behavior are most successful. Screening of parent and child occurs to ensure the best possible match. These instruments, each of which takes about 30 minutes to complete, should become part of the standard procedure for adoption. While these procedures may place additional responsibility and time on an already overburdened child welfare system, they offer adoptive parents more complete information about their child. As a result, the adoptive parents can better prepare to become new parents.