A Preliminary Evaluation of an Adoption-Focused Group Intervention for Families

The current study describes a preliminary evaluation of the Learning and Empowerment for Adoptive Families (LEAF) workshop. This workshop is offered to adoptive families to enhance communication about adoption, cope with strong emotions, and build social connection. The current study includes data from 26 participating parents of 21 children. Participants' report of adoption-related beliefs and feelings, comfort discussing adoption, and family protective factors were compared before and after the group using paired samples t-tests. Qualitative data were also reported based on participant responses to the post-group survey. The findings, although limited, support the effectiveness of the LEAF group, and warrant further research.