ADOPTIVE COUPLES - COMMUNICATION AND CHANGES MADE IN OPENNESS LEVELS

The communication facility component of the Clinical Rating Scale (CRS ) based on the Circumplex Model of Marital and Family Systems (Olson, 1993), was employed to compare a group of adoptive couples that had in creased their level of adoption openness from mediated to fully disclo sed with a group that remained in mediated arrangements Couples with i ncreased levels of openness demonstrated significantly higher levels o f self-disclosure, listener's skills, empathy, continuity/tracking, re spect and regard and global communication facility than couples In The mediated group. Groups did not differ significantly in speaker's stil ls. Case studies illustrative of these findings and implications for p rofessionals working with adoptive families are provided.