Parenting stress in families adopting children from Romanian orphanages

Parenting stress was evaluated in families that adopted children who were institutionalized for at least 8 months in a Romanian orphanage (RO group) and two comparison groups: families with Canadian-born, nonadopted children (CB group) and families that adopted Romanian orphans who had spent less than 4 months in Romanian orphanages (RC group). Parenting stress, assessed using parent reports on the Parenting Stress Index (PSI) (Abidin, 1990), was found to be higher in the PO group than in the comparison groups. Predictors of parenting stress in the RO group included aspects of child behavior such as attachment security and number of behavior problems, as well as family factors such as income, mother's age, and number of Romanian children adopted. Of the various predictors, the relationship between parenting stress and behavior problems was particularly strong. The findings are discussed with respect to their implications for special needs adoptions.