Two years ago, as I was completing my second adoption from Russia, there was talk that Russia would soon begin requiring some sort of psychological test to determine parental fitness. Remember that, two years ago, Russian adoptions were being roiled by three high-profile cases of Russian-born children murdered by their American adoptive parents. An independent test of someone's suitability to be a parent didn't seem at all out of place.

Russia still hasn't passed a law mandating a psychological examination. But, speaking at the recent Adoptive Parents Committee conference, Larissa Mason, executive director of the Pittsburgh-based adoption agency International Assistance Group, said she thought it would be soon. Some regions in Russia have filled the gap in federal law with their own psychological tests. I read a blog recently from a family who were asked a barrage of psychological questions by the doctor in their prospective child's orphanage during trip one.

What form will the Russia test take? IAG's Mason believes it will be the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, which is already a widely used mental health assessment in the United States. IAG, in fact, has required this test of prospective Russian adoptive parents for almost the last two years.

While I know that some of you may groan at the prospect of yet another hoop to jump through to make your Russian adoption happen, mandating the MMPI won't be such bad news. It is a well-known, standardized test. And just like the standardized tests that govern other aspects of our lives (like the SAT and GMAT), the MMPI is the same whether you take it in New York City or Oshkosh. (You will have to see a psychology professional to take it; it's not available online as far as I can tell.)

So just what is the MMPI? As its name sort of indicates, it was developed at the University of Minnesota. The original MMPI, created in 1942, was replaced by MMPI-2 in 1989 and a University of Minnesota professor, Victor Koscheyev, collaborated on the Russian translation and adaptation of it that was released in 1996. The newer test has nearly 600 true/false questions and takes about two hours to complete.

What do you do about all this? Ask your agency whether the officials in the Russian region you are considering have expressed an interest in seeing MMPI tests in adoption dossiers.


Image credit: Clarita at Morguefile.com