Imagining Hard to Place Children in the Adoption Pipeline: Special Needs, Race, Gender, and Disability

• In Event: 153 - Section on Children and Youth Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 05. Social Work and Children's Welfare

Abstract

Utilizing public data retrieved from a New England state adoption information and referral service, we explore the means in which children available for adoption are depicted in adoption profiles. Particularly, we are interested in the ways children who are considered “harder to place” due to race, age, and/or disability status are categorized as special needs within the adoption pipeline. 291 single adoption profiles of children aged 1-18 of various races/ethnicities, most in need of multiple accommodations, are analyzed via content analysis. In addition to base personal statistics and disability statuses, we investigate how children are portrayed through positive, negative, and child interest characteristics. We hypothesized that children with more accommodations, and therefore harder to place, would be characterized with more positive characteristics and child interests in order to offset disability/accommodation status. We find that children who have higher accommodations are more negatively portrayed throughout their profiles; however, racial and ethnic minority children are more positively portrayed throughout their profiles. The results indicate that racial and ethnic minority children are considered the most difficult to place regardless of disability accommodation status. We conclude with a theoretical and ethical discussion of public data availability for wards of the state and child rights to personal information placed in adoption profiles.

Authors

• Ingrid E. Castro, MCLA

• Paul James Groff, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts

• Monique M. Lemay, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts