Ana Chorão

Although parenting stress has been identified as one of the most important and highly acceptable targets for postadoption psychological intervention, knowledge regarding the modifiable factors that contribute to explaining this outcome among adoptive parents remains scarce. This study aimed to explore whether and to what extent adoptive parents’ mindfulness, psychological flexibility, and self-compassion contribute to explaining parenting stress and to analyze whether this contribution varies according to children’s age, time passed since the adoptive placement, and the parents’ gender. Cross-sectional data from 302 Portuguese adoptive parents with children between 1 and 17 years old were collected online through self-response questionnaires. Controlling for a wide range of child-, adoption-, and parent-related variables, lower levels of mindfulness, psychological flexibility, and self-compassion were associated with higher levels of parenting stress. These associations were not mod...

Effective psychological parenting interventions delivered to adoptive parents may prevent serious adjustment difficulties and promote a healthy functioning; however, less is known about adoptive parents’ specific parental difficulties and help-seeking behaviors and perceptions, the understanding of which is deemed necessary to design well-informed interventions. This study aimed to describe parental difficulties, help-seeking behaviors, satisfaction with, and perceived barriers to seek, professional help, and acceptability of psychological parenting interventions among Portuguese adoptive parents. Comparisons with biological parents (Study 1) and between adoptive parents that requested adoption-specialized and non-specialized support (i.e., adoption-specialized vs. non-specialized help-seekers) (Study 2) were explored. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted. Participants were 471 adoptive and 552 biological parents of children aged under 18 years who were recruited through sc...