Female adoptees' perceptions of contact with their birth fathers: satisfactions and dissatisfactions with the process.

Qualitative data were analyzed to identify factors associated with adoptees' satisfactions or dissatisfactions in their contact experiences with their birth fathers. Participants were 17 women who had been adopted prior to 2 years of age and had subsequently met their birth fathers. All women completed a questionnaire and 7 also took part in a semistructured interview.

Relationships at school and stage-environment fit as resources for adolescent engagement and achievement.

Guided by Self-Determination and associated theories, we examined whether adolescent (N=324, Mage=15, 52% female) competence (academic engagement and achievement) were supported by relationships at school and school fit. Aspects of relationships and school fit that were measured included adolescents' perceptions of each context as promoting autonomy, relatedness and competence. Within a latent-variable structural equation model, direct and indirect path estimates, standard errors and confidence intervals were produced using maximum likelihood and bootstrapping.