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In this study, we investigated (1) whether adoptive parents suspected their children might have been victims of abduction for adoption in China and (2) for parents who were uncertain if their own children might be victims of child abduction for adoption, how they coped with the possibility. A total of 342 adoptive parents (representing 529 adopted Chinese children) completed an anonymous online survey on their experiences. Of the 342 parents, 154 (45%) described how they coped with the possibility that their children might be the victims of child abduction for adoption. In terms of suspicion, we found that for about 70% of the children, the parents responded Never; for 18.5% of the children, the parents responded Rarely; for 11.7% of the children, the parents responded Sometimes; and for about 1% of the children, the parents responded that they Always suspected that their children might be victims of abduction for adoption. In terms of coping with the possibility that their children might have been victims of child abduction for adoption, thematic analysis on the 154 parents’ descriptions revealed that parents experienced one or more of seven emotional reactions: sadness, frustration/helplessness, complicity/guilt, anger, fear/worry, hypervigilance, resolve, as well as the belief that they were not affected. Finally, we discussed contributing factors to child abduction for adoption and to adoptive parents’ suspicion of such a practice.
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In this paper, we investigated adoptive parent–child relationship quality as a function of the adopted children's country of origin, pre-adoption adversity, age at placement, age, gender, and special healthcare needs status. From the 2007 National Survey of Adoptive Parents (NSAP; N=2089), we identified 1906 families that had adopted children from the US foster care system, US private agencies, China, Guatemala, Russia and South Korea. Regression analysis showed that when country of origin was the sole predictor, adoption from the US private agencies (β=.18, p<.001), China (β=.21, p<.001), Russia (β=.06, p<.05) and South Korea (β=.07, p<.05) predicted higher parent–child relationship quality score than adoption from the US foster care system (referent) (R2=5.59%). Adoption from Guatemala was not different from adoption from the US foster care system in parent–child relationship quality (β=−.01, p>.10). In the absence of country of origin, being a boy (β=−.10, p<.05), older age at placement (β=−.20, p<.001), older age (β=−.11, p<.001), having special healthcare needs (β=−.19, p<.001), and more pre-adoption adversity (β=−.08, p<.05) all significantly predicted lower parent–child relationship quality scores (R2=17.56%). When country of origin and the above variables were entered into the regression model simultaneously, being a boy, age at placement, age, and special healthcare needs status remained significant. However, none of the countries of origin except China (β=.07, p<.05) remained significant in predicting higher parent–child relationship score. Our findings showed that the unique circumstances that fueled the availability of children from different countries to become available for adoption played some role in parent–child relationship quality. However, the adopted children's gender, age at placement, age, and special healthcare needs were more predictive of post-adoption parent–child relationship quality.