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Exploring the Educational Experiences of Children and Young People Adopted from Care: Using the Voices of Children and Parents to Inform Practice
2019 · United Kingdom (regional recruitment not established)
Interviews with eleven secondary-aged adoptees and a focus group with six adopters explored school experiences. Analysis identified themes of emotional difficulty, social disconnection, school responses, relationships and prejudice. A second phase discussed these findings with twenty designated teachers to consider implications for school support.
Facial emotion recognition in adopted children
2022 · Wales
Forty-two adopted children completed a facial-emotion recognition task as part of neurodevelopmental assessment.
Factors affecting adoption in Wales: Predictors of variation in time between entry to care and adoptive placement
2016 · Wales, United Kingdom
Researchers analysed adoption reports for 374 children placed for adoption in Wales during thirteen months in 2014–2015. Longer time between entering care and adoptive placement was associated with developmental delay, behavioural difficulties, enduring health problems or disability, and exposure to domestic violence. The procedural factors examined were not associated with time to placement.
Family Finding and Matching in Adoption: What Helps to Make a Good Match?
2016 · England
Researchers reviewed files for 149 children recommended for adoption in ten local authorities and followed 67 cases through professional and family interviews until six months after placement. Children considered harder to place were deliberately overrepresented. Poorer-rated matches were associated with poorer early outcomes. Understating children’s difficulties and limiting searches to in-house families were associated with matching problems.
Family Routes: analysis of DfE administrative data methodological paper and core sample
2025 · England
Linked social-care and education records were used to construct an England sample of 127,040 children, including 68,110 who left care through adoption. This methods and descriptive report compares their care histories with special-guardianship and long-term fostering groups. Adopted children entered care younger but experienced more placement changes and slower decision-making than the special-guardianship group.
Family Routes: children who returned to care after leaving for adoption or to live with a special guardian
2025 · England, United Kingdom
Researchers used linked English social-care records to examine return to care following 70,170 adoptions and 48,020 special guardianship orders. Estimated return-to-care rates at eight years were about 2% after adoption and 10% after special guardianship. Older age at the permanence order was associated with higher risk, and the report followed children’s subsequent placements after return to care.
Family Routes: exploring the needs and experiences of young people
2026 · England
The report draws on interviews within 74 adoptive and special-guardianship families and examines circumstances affecting wellbeing, health and outcomes for young people aged 12–25.
Family-based psychological interventions for domestically adoptive families: a systematic review
2024 · United Kingdom; international
A review of 20 papers describing 18 studies examined family-based psychological interventions for domestic adoptive families, including UK services. It reported some improvements in child and family outcomes with integrated approaches using play, attachment-focused therapy and trauma interventions, but judged the available studies to have high risk of bias.
Fast Feet Forward: Early intervention protocol using bilateral movements to reduce stress and increase positive cognitions in adopted children with complex trauma presentation
2022 · United Kingdom (regional recruitment not established)
Researchers examined a running-based intervention for adopted children with complex trauma. Recorded ratings showed reduced subjective distress and increased endorsement of positive cognitions after one session and after twelve sessions. The protocol used running as bilateral stimulation within a systemic formulation.
Father-child attachment in adoptive gay father families
2020 · United Kingdom
Researchers assessed attachment through Friends and Family Interviews with children in thirty gay-father, twenty-nine lesbian-mother and thirty-eight heterosexual-parent adoptive families. Children in gay-father families showed higher secure-autonomous and lower disorganised attachment ratings than those in heterosexual-parent families.
Finding my voice: A qualitative exploration into the perceived impact of person-centred counsellor training upon counsellors who were adopted as a baby
2021 · United Kingdom (regional coverage not specified in abstract)
Researchers used qualitative accounts from qualified person-centred counsellors adopted as babies to explore how adoption influenced their training. Interpretative phenomenological analysis identified adoption-related difficulties and participants’ accounts of greater self-awareness, self-acceptance, identity development and ability to express themselves during training.
Findings from a longitudinal study of early placements: Messages for policy and practice
2018 · England
This follow-up covered 12 children aged seven to fifteen placed through Coram’s concurrent-planning service. Parents completed surveys, ten were interviewed, and two young people were interviewed directly. No participating family reported a placement disruption. Two-thirds of the children had learning or developmental difficulties, and the two young people described closeness to their adoptive families.
Findings from a UK Based Study of Late Permanent Placements
2000 · United Kingdom
This article reports research on later permanent placements in the United Kingdom. Its title and bibliographic identity are verified in subsequent research publications. The article’s abstract and full text were not accessible, so no results are stated.
From Less to More: The clinician’s experience of the transition from non-intensive to intensive psychoanalytic psychotherapy with looked-after and adopted children
2023 · United Kingdom (regional recruitment not established)
Semi-structured interviews with clinicians examined moving looked-after and adopted children from weekly psychotherapy to three sessions a week. Reflexive thematic analysis described complex transitions that could feel disruptive and the need to prepare for changes in treatment frequency. Some accounts suggested weekly treatment could remain preferable for particular children.
Full adoption in England and Wales and France: a comparative history of law and practice (1926–2015)
2017 · England and Wales; France
This historical comparison examines why England and Wales and France developed different patterns of domestic and intercountry adoption. It compares adoption law and practice from 1926 to 2015. The author relates the greater use of domestic adoption in England and Wales to child-protection placements, and discusses how historical child migration and debates about transracial adoption influenced approaches to adoption from abroad.
Further analysis of the British Chinese Adoption Study (BCAS): Adult life events and experiences after international adoption
2018 · UK; women adopted from Hong Kong
Questionnaires and interviews with 68 women in their forties and early fifties examined adult lives after adoption from Hong Kong orphanages into UK families during the 1960s. Most described broadly stable, supported lives with difficult periods. Unhappiness about adoption and partnership adversity after age 25 were associated with poorer midlife functioning. Childhood experiences were not associated with patterns of adult adversity.
Gender Dysphoria in looked-after and adopted young people in a gender identity development service
2019 · United Kingdom (regional breakdown not specified)
Researchers reviewed case files for 185 young people referred to a UK gender identity service in 2009–2011. Adopted young people accounted for 3.8% of referrals and looked-after young people for 4.9%. The study compared clinical presentation and service pathways between groups. Adopted and looked-after young people did not show greater overall functional impairment than other young people referred to the service.
Genetic and Nongenetic Components of Stroke Family History: A Population Study of Adopted and Nonadopted Individuals
2023 · United Kingdom
Researchers analysed UK Biobank genetic data and family histories in 495,640 participants, including 5,747 adoptees, with about 13 years of follow-up for stroke and myocardial infarction. Stroke family history was associated with incident stroke among adoptees, while heart-disease family history was not associated with myocardial infarction in adoptees. Polygenic scores showed disease-specific associations in both adopted and non-adopted groups.
Grandmothers’ endocrine disruption during pregnancy, low birth weight, and preterm birth in third generation
2021 · United States
Researchers examined 54,334 grandmother–mother pairs and 128,275 grandchildren. Reported grandmother DES use during pregnancy was associated with higher odds of premature birth (adjusted OR 2.88) and low birthweight (3.09) in grandchildren. The low-birthweight association was smaller when restricted to term births.
Health Problems in Children Adopted from Romania: Association with Duration of Deprivation and Behavioural Problems
2003 · United Kingdom
Parents reported health problems in 165 Romanian adoptees and 52 UK comparison adoptees at entry and age six. Malnutrition and infections were common on arrival from Romania; some hearing, eye, skin and hepatitis B problems persisted. Health risks were associated with later attention and activity difficulties, but not with cognitive or attachment outcomes in the reported analyses.