Adoption Beyond Borders

Inspired by her own challenging experience as a parent adopting a child from Kazakhstan, academic psychologist Rebecca Compton has authored a clear, well-documented argument that a child's long term health, development and socioemotional well being are largely determined by the presence of devoted, contingent caregivers and a stable family during early life. Addressing criticisms with evidence rather than supposition, she reaches the indisputable conclusion that international adoption remains the best hope for many unparented children worldwide. --Dana E. Johnson, MD, PhD, Professor of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota This is a deeply intelligent book that should be a must read for adoptive parents, policy makers, academics, child welfare professionals, and all who care about children. It is beautifully written, insightful and wonderfully wise. Compton destroys many of the stereotypes that dominate discourse on international adoption, and provides an understanding of the reality based on an in-depth assessment of the social science. --Elizabeth Bartholet, JD, Morris Wasserstein Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Child Advocacy Program, Harvard Law School This is one of the very best, most important books written on the plight of unparented children worldwide and the role international adoption can and should play for such children...This book is balanced, entirely fair in airing all important positions. But it is hard-hitting, insisting on what the evidence tells us about the important facts and how those facts should drive policy. - Adoption Quarterly Inspired by her own challenging experience as a parent adopting a child from Kazakhstan, academic psychologist Rebecca Compton has authored a clear, well-documented argument that a child's long term health, development and socioemotional well being are largely determined by the presence of devoted, contingent caregivers and a stable family during early life. Addressing criticisms with evidence rather than supposition, she reaches the indisputable conclusion that international adoption remains the best hope for many unparented children worldwide. --Dana E. Johnson, MD, PhD, Professor of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota This is a deeply intelligent book that should be a must read for adoptive parents, policy makers, academics, child welfare professionals, and all who care about children. It is beautifully written, insightful and wonderfully wise. Compton destroys many of the stereotypes that dominate discourse on international adoption, and provides an understanding of the reality based on an in-depth assessment of the social science. --Elizabeth Bartholet, JD, Morris Wasserstein Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Child Advocacy Program, Harvard Law School