Professor Hal Grotevant of the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences will present the Distinguished Faculty Lecture on Monday, February 22, 2016.

His talk, “New Worlds of Adoption: Navigating Contact between Adoptive and Birth Families from Placement to Adulthood" begins promptly at 4:00 p.m. in the Bernie Dallas Room, Goodell Building. 

Since the mid-1970s, U.S. adoption practices have changed dramatically. The confidentiality traditionally maintained between the child’s adoptive family and birth relatives has given way to “openness,” in which—either directly or indirectly, as through an adoption agency—contact occurs.

This lecture will frame research findings on the nation’s changing attitudes and values about adoption. Professor Grotevant will draw from four waves of longitudinal data to trace findings regarding such outcomes for the children as mental health, identity, and adjustment, and trace the dynamics of relationships within adoptive kinship networks. 

Professor Grotevant will be presented with the Chancellor’s Medal, the highest recognition bestowed to faculty by the campus, at the conclusion of the lecture.

For information, call 413-577-1101.