Objectives
There are increasing efforts to adopt older youth from foster care, given that youth who “age out” of the foster care system are at increased risk for homelessness, incarceration, and poor academic outcomes, yet research demonstrates that older foster care youth often have histories of trauma, substance exposure in utero, and risk of multiple placements, which can affect behavioral and adoption outcomes. Furthermore, there are few evidence-based interventions designed for families adopting older youth from foster care. The goal of this presentation is to describe a unique manualized Adoption-Specific Intervention (ADAPT) intervention, developed specifically for families adopting older foster care youth. Important lessons for mental health clinicians working with families of adopted youth will be discussed.
Methods
We present early results from a small open and recently initiated the randomized trial of ADAPT versus care as usual for older children (ages 5–16 years) adopted from the foster care system. Outcomes include child symptomatology, parent stress, and progress on parent-defined behavioral goals.
Results
Early results show that children assigned to the ADAPT intervention improve in terms of symptomatology and parent-defined behavioral goals. Parental stress does not appear to improve following the intervention. Implications of this intervention and early findings will be provided for clinicians working with this population in the community.
Conclusions
The ADAPT intervention holds promise for improving outcomes for older children adopted from foster care.