Social work students' adoption preferences: Title IV-E and non Title IV-E participants

This study studies adoption preferences of MSW students in the Title IV-E (child welfare) and Non Title IV-E (non child welfare) programs. Adoption is becoming more common and acceptable throughout the United States and other countries of the world. As many adoptive families are more willing to adopting healthy infants, the adoption of older children and children with disabilities has become a major challenge. Findings from this quantitative questionnaire survey study personal experience are a major factor affecting one's adoption preferences. Age, gender and ethnicity/race, however, are not prohibiting concerns when considering adoption. Issues of child disabilities including physical, mental, behavioral, and developmental disabilities are found to be prohibiting concerns for the respondents as adoptive parents. Both Title IV-E and Non Title IV-E MSW students were more agreeable to adopting healthy young children rather than special needs children. However, contradict to the research hypothesis, Non Title IV-E students are significantly more willing than the Title IV-E students to adopt children with disabilities.