Foundation For Large Families
Information email: largefamilies2001@yahoo.com
RESULTS TO THE 2003 LARGE FAMILIES' POLL
In some categories, there were a couple of REALLY high numbers in the answers, which were much higher than the others. For these I have also given a corrected average. I am not a statistician, but I do realize that medians would have been helpful if I knew how to do that. And YES there are questions that should have been included on the poll.
A.
1. Total Number of Responding Members: 46
Number of Single Parents: 11
Number of Married Parents: 34
78% of our members are married
24% of our members are single parents
2. Average years married (24 people responding): 22 years
3. Current number of Children still at home (42 responding): 405 children still at home
Average number of children still at home per family responding: 9.64
Most children still at home: 25 in one home
4. Children by birth
(22 people responding): 67
Average number of children by birth per people responding: 3
This question was added to the poll later and not everyone responded with updates, so an average number of children by birth for the entire group is not available)
5. Number of foster children parented
(27 people responded that they had been a foster parent): 875
Average number of foster children per home of those who had foster parented: 32 (skewed by 3 very high numbers)
Knocking off the persons who responded more than 100, which are much higher than the others, the average figure is: 13.5 fostered in lifetime.
37% of our members have been foster parents in addition to adopting
6. Number of medically/mentally disabled kids adopted (35 people responding that they had adopted such children): 216
Average number of medically/mentally disabled kids per responder: 6
76% of our group has adopted medically/mentally-disabled children.
7. Number of behavior problem children parented (40 people responding): 832
Average: 20
Average when you remove the extremely high numbers over 100: 13
Average for entire group: 17
Average when you remove the extremely high numbers:
87% of our group has adopted a child with behavior problems
8. Number of teens adopted (22 people responding): 58
Average for those who adopted teens is 2.6
About half of our large families have adopted teens
9. Number of children adopted from sibling groups (27 people responding): 50
Average of those responding: about 2 kids per family.
59% of our families have adopted children in sibling groups.
10. Number of non-Caucasian children adopted (35 responding): 249
Average of those responding: 7 per family
76% of our families have adopted non-Caucasian children
11. Number of children who are now deceased (7 responding): 26
12. Total number of children parented (31 responding): 1865
Average number for the 31 responding: 60
Knocking off the figures over 100 (7 families), the average is 28
Those 7 families represent 1208 of all the children parented: average of 172
(This question was added later and not all families sent in updates, so we can't give an average for the entire membership)
If all 46 had responded, we could estimate that the total parented for this group of 46 would be about 2767.
13. Current states of residence:
FL and MI each have 5 families
OH, PA and TN each have 4 families
AZ,CO, GA, IA, IL and UT have 2 families each
AL,ME,MN, MO, MT, NJ, NM, NY and VT have 1 family each
One family lives in Canada, one states "Western USA"
22% of our families live in FL and MI
14. States where you have lived while adopting/fostering special needs kids:
6 families have lived in FL at one time or another
5 families have lived in MI
5 families have lived in PA
4 families have lived in IL
4 families have lived in OH
4 families have lived in TN
3 families have lived in AZ
3 families have lived in NJ
3 families have lived in NY
2 families have lived have lived in GA,
2 families have lived in IA,
2 families have lived in MO.
2 families have lived in UT
2 families have lived in VA
Each of the following states has had one of our families living there at one time while adopting:
DC, CA, CO, KY, ME, MA, MN, MI, MT, NM, MC, OK, TX, WA, WI
35% of our families have lived in FL, MI and PA while adopting
15. States you have adopted from while not living in that state: (Interstate compact implications)
12 families have adopted from TX across state lines
5 families have adopted from OH across state lines
4 families have adopted from CA across state lines
4 families have adopted from NC across state lines
4 families have adopted from VA across state lines
4 families have adopted from IL across state lines
3 families have adopted from GA across state lines
3 families have adopted from NY across state lines
3 families have adopted from NJ across state lines 2.families have adopted from FL across state lines
2 families have adopted from MI across state lines
2 families have adopted from TN across state lines
Each of the following states has had one of our families adopting from them across state lines:
DC, AK, AR, HI,,KS, LA, MD, MO, , NV, OR, PA, WA, and WI
26% of our families have adopted from TX across state lines.
16. Families that have been denied the right to adopt because of family size: 24
17. States that denied families that right (while not denying birth parents the right to have large numbers of birth children):
5 families were denied the right to adopt from OR
4 families were denied the right to adopt from FL
4 families were denied the right to adopt from MO
3 families were denied the right to adopt from ID
3 families were denied the right to adopt from TN
2 families were denied the right to adopt from CO
2 families were denied the right to adopt from IL
2 families were denied the right to adopt from MA
2 families were denied the right to adopt from MI
2 families were denied the right to adopt from OH
Each of the following states have denied the right to adopt to one family:
CA, GA, KS, KY, ME, NB, MJ, NM, NY, ND, PA, VA
OR, FL and MO are the least open to large families
An adopted child is equal in the eyes of the law to a birth child. Therefore, if a state denies a large adoptive family the right to adopt again, then legally that state should be required by law to limit the number of children by birth.
Visitors to our site since October 2, 2003.
