The Effectiveness of Group Therapy in Supporting Adoptive Families

Abstract

Adopted children and their families have unique needs compared to non-adoptive families. Adoption research seeks to understand these unique needs and contribute to a growing field of adoption competent therapy. The purpose of this paper is to understand how adoption competent group therapy can benefit adoptive families, and provides analysis on secondary data collected in 2019 from pre and post measures for a weekly support group from post adoption program. The research included 8 participants who were adoptive parents of adolescent girls, and included quantitative and qualitative data about how parents and their children responded to the program. The questions covered a variety of topics regarding the child, adoptive parents, and the parent- child relationship as a while. The results showed that from a quantitative standpoint, minimal improvements were made after the group, but the qualitative data showed that the group provided numerous benefits for adoptive parents.