University of Massachusetts Amherst

Search Google Appliance

Links

Research

Minnesota / Texas Adoption Research Project

The Minnesota / Texas Adoption Research Project (MTARP) is a longitudinal research study that focuses on the consequences of variations in openness in adoption arrangements for all members of the adoptive kinship network: birth mothers, adoptive parents, and adopted children, and for the relationships within these family systems.

IMPORTANT NEWS:  

In 2022-2023, the original PIs of the Minnesota Texas Adoption Research Project (MTARP), Dr. Harold Grotevant (UMass Amherst) and Dr. Ruth McRoy (UT Austin, Boston College) moved into well-deserved retirement. In doing so, they named Dr. Rachel Farr, an internationally recognized adoption researcher, to serve as the next PI for the project and host the MTARP data set at her home institution, the University of Kentucky. This arrangement will make it possible for researchers to continue to work with MTARP data now and into the future.  There are numerous options for using MTARP data for continuing and new independent and collaborative projects (e.g., theses, manuscripts, conference presentations, etc.) via the University of Kentucky (UK) and using OneDrive. The general approach is that you will need to agree to our existing Data Use Agreement (DUA), work with the PI (Rachel Farr, PhD) to secure IRB approval at UK (as well as potentially at your institution) for use of the data, and sign up for respective accounts (e.g., OneDrive) so that you can access the data where it is stored at UK. Now that the data set has been transferred to UKY, it is no longer available through UMass Amherst. The data transfer was completed on December 13, 2023. As the new MTARP PI, Rachel (rachel.farr@uky.edu) is happy to discuss your individual questions and situations at any time!

With all our best,

MTARP Executive Committee: Hal Grotevant, Ruth McRoy, Rachel Farr, Gretchen Wrobel, Susan Ayers-Lopez, and Dongwei Wang

Learn more about MTARP


Add Health Adoption Project

The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent and Adult Health "Add Health" includes five waves of data from a nationally representative sample of American youth, who are now young adults. Our lab is using Add Health data to understand contexts, processes, and psychological outcomes for adopted and nonadopted participants in the study. 

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Genomic Family Health History for Adopted Persons

In collaboration with Thomas May and an interdisciplinary research team from across the United States, we are making the case that adopted persons share a "health disparity," namely, the lack of information about their genetic background and family medical history. Here is a link to the paper presented by Prof. May at the 2018 Rudd conference, explaining the project's progress to date and future aspirations.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

The Contemporary Adoptive Families Study (Rachel Farr, Principal Investigator) is a longitudinal study of adoptive families headed by lesbian, gay, and heterosexual couples, all of whom had completed an infant adoption from a private agency in the United States. Wave 2 of the project was conceptualized and carried out in the Rudd Lab while Dr. Farr was a post-doc with Dr. Grotevant and Research Assistant Professor at UMass Amherst. Her work is now continuing at the University of Kentucky, where she is an Associate Professor of Psychology.

Learn more about the Contemporary Adoptive Families Study

This survey (Jennifer McDermott, Principal Investigator) explores experiences of Massachusetts families with the aim of informing local providers as to what services are most valued and what services are most needed among kinship, foster, and adoptive families.

Learn more about the Mass. Survey of Kinship, Foster, and Adoption Placements

This project, conducted as part of the Adoption Task Force commissioned by the 2013 session of the Massachusetts Legislature, addressed issues involving the length of time it takes to adopt a child in Massachusetts and the costs associated with adoption.