Adoption Beyond Borders

International adoptions have decreased dramatically in the last decade, despite robust evidence of the tremendous benefits that early placement in adoptive families can confer upon children who are not able to remain with birth families. This book integrates evidence from a range of disciplines in the social and biological sciences— including psychology, neuroscience, evolutionary biology, sociology, anthropology, and social work — to provide a ringing endorsementof international adoption as a viable child welfare option. The author interweaves narrative accounts of her own adoption journey, which involved visiting a Kazakhstani orphanage daily for nearly a year, to illustrate the complexities and implications of the research evidence. Topics include theeffects of institutionalization on children's developing brains, cognitive abilities, and socio-emotional functioning; the challenges of navigating issues of identity when adopting across national, cultural, and racial lines; how strong emotional bonds form even without genetic relatedness; and how adoptive families can address the special needs of children who experienced early neglect and deprivation, providing a supportive environment in which those children can flourish. Striving to attaina balanced, evidence-based perspective on controversial issues, the book argues that international adoption must be maintained and supported as a vital means of promoting international child welfare.

"This is one of the very best, most important books written on the plight of unparented children worldwide and the role international adoption can and should play for such children...This book is balanced, entirely fair in airing all important positions. But it is hard-hitting, insisting on what the evidence tells us about the important facts and how those facts should drive policy." --Adoption Quarterly"Inspired by her own challenging experience as a parent adopting a child from Kazakhstan, academic psychologist Rebecca Compton has authored a clear, well-documented argument that a child's long term health, development and socioemotional well being are largely determined by the presence of devoted, contingent caregivers and a stable family during early life. Addressing criticisms with evidence rather than supposition, she reaches the indisputable conclusion that international adoption remains the best hope for many unparented children worldwide." --Dana E. Johnson, MD, PhD, Professor of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota"This is a deeply intelligent book that should be a must read for adoptive parents, policy makers, academics, child welfare professionals, and all who care about children. It is beautifully written, insightful and wonderfully wise. Compton destroys many of the stereotypes that dominate discourse on international adoption, and provides an understanding of the reality based on an in-depth assessment of the social science." --Elizabeth Bartholet, JD, Morris Wasserstein Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Child Advocacy Program, Harvard Law School"Adoption Beyond Borders is written in clear English without jargon. It mixes the author's personal story with a wealth of data and there are many pages of notes and references at the end. It paints a very positive view of international adoption and dispels many myths about why it is a problem or is an inherently secondary form of parenting. It will be useful both to read[ers] thinking about adopting themselves, those who are interested in adoption policies at state and international levels." --Metapsychology Onine Reviews

Rebecca J. Compton is professor of psychology at Haverford College, where she has taught since 1999. She received her B.A. from Vassar College and her Ph.D. in biological psychology from University of Chicago. Her previous research focused on executive function, attention, and emotion regulation in the human brain, and she has co-authored a textbook in cognitive neuroscience, published by Wadsworth/Cengage.