Adoption-specific Treatment Prevention Pilot Trial

Stopped early · Not applicable

Conditions studied: Prevent Disorders in Children Adopted From Foster Care

In brief

This study seeks to pilot a manualized adoption-specific intervention aimed at providing a preventive intervention for families adopting children ages 5-14 years where family reunification has been terminated and the family is moving toward adoption or who have adopted children from foster care in the last three years. This work will fill a major gap in services to children and families and is developed to improve mental health and family functioning of children adopted from foster care, as well as decrease adoption disruptions. President Clinton's 1997 adoption initiative, The Adoption and Safe Families ACT (ASFA), along with subsequent Congressional initiatives, have provided incentives to States and subsidies for adopting older children with a resultant increase in rates of adoption from foster care from 26,000 in 1995 to 53,000 (stabilized annual rate) beginning in 2002. The mean age at adoption from foster care is now 6 years old. These older children have histories of physical and sexual abuse, neglect, and multiple placements, all factors that predict behavior problems over time. To address this gap in our knowledge of providing care for this vulnerable group, we have developed a manualized adoption-specific intervention for families adopting children from foster care. Because adoptive children generally enter homes with stable, well-functioning parents, interventions may be particularly effective in helping the children adjust and their parents learn to understand and manage children with difficult past histories. The aim of this current pilot trial is to test this intervention designed to improve the outcomes for children adopted from foster care through a randomized trial. Our hypothesis is that this manualized adoption-specific intervention will be more effective than care as usual in improving child mental health and family functioning outcomes; specifically, families and children who have been randomized to the manualized adoption-specific intervention will show better outcomes on the post-treatment measures and the 3 month follow-up than on the pre-treatment measures than the care as usual families and children.

Key facts

Study ID: NCT01744951
Run by: University of California, Los Angeles
People needed: 60
Starts: 2012-10-01
Expected to finish: 2018-12-01
Last updated by the study team: 2026-04-20

Who can join

Age: 5 and older, up to 14. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: accepted.

You may qualify if…

Children being adopted from foster care, ages 5-14
Children (within above age range) who have been adopted in the last three years
Family reunification services have been terminated

You may not qualify if…

Children with the following Diagnostic and Statistical Manual psychiatric disorders will be excluded from study participation: Pervasive Developmental Disorders (e.g. Asperger's, autism, mental retardation, or psychotic disorder as known to the parents
Children will be excluded if the child has a major neurological disorder or a major medical illness that would interfere with participation in the study
Children who pose a significant risk for dangerousness to self or others that makes participating inadvisable
Children and/or parents who are non-English speaking and unable to complete treatment without a translator will not be included

Where it is running

Children's Bureau of Southern California — Los Angeles, California, United States
UCLA TIES for Familes — Los Angeles, California, United States
UCLA TIES for Families South Bay — Torrance, California, United States
Center for Adoption Support and Education — Burtonsville, Maryland, United States
Children's Home Society North Carolina — Greensboro, North Carolina, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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