Adoptee Rights
Research

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  • Infant adoption: psychosocial outcomes in adulthood

    1998 · United Kingdom

    Using the National Child Development Study, researchers compared adult psychosocial outcomes among adoptees, nonadopted people born in similar circumstances and other cohort members. Adopted women showed few difficulties across the domains examined. Adopted men showed difficulties in employment and social support. The findings describe differences between these comparison groups rather than a uniform outcome for all adoptees.

  • Infant domestic adoption: outcomes at mid-life

    2020 · United Kingdom

    Researchers compared infant-adopted members of the 1958 and 1970 British birth cohorts with people raised by two birth parents and nonadopted people from similar circumstances at birth. At mid-life, physical health and wellbeing differed little between groups. Psychological distress was generally similar to population comparisons. Externalising outcomes were higher than population comparisons but similar to birth-circumstance comparisons, with prenatal and childhood circumstances contributing to differences.

  • Infant domestic adoptions followed up to adulthood: considerations with reference to British birth cohort data

    2020 · United Kingdom research context (sample geography not specified in abstract)

    Researchers reviewed adult outcomes of infant domestic adoption and discussed findings from British post-war birth-cohort follow-ups into midlife. They considered prenatal factors, adoptive environments and comparison groups. The paper describes potentially different patterns of protection for internalising and externalising difficulties.

  • Inputs to an Adoption Panel: A Case Study

    2004 · United Kingdom

    An observational case study examined social work reports and the attendance of social workers and applicants at an adoption panel. Panel outputs were clearly specified, but inputs lacked a clear purpose. The author considered whether uncertainty about making decisions versus validating recommendations helped explain this pattern.

  • Intensive psychoanalytic psychotherapy with looked after and adopted children: Exploring the experiences and perspectives of trainee Child and Adolescent Psychotherapists

    2021 · United Kingdom (regional recruitment not established)

    Five trainee child and adolescent psychotherapists were interviewed about intensive treatment of looked-after and adopted children in CAMHS. Reflexive thematic analysis described trauma and loss, ambivalence and violence in therapy, pressures on professional collaboration, and the role of supervision and developmental work.

  • Inter-agency Adoption and the Government’s Subsidy of the Inter-Agency Fee

    2017 · England

    This evaluation combined data for 500 children with placement orders in 2014–2016, agency-manager interviews, professional and adopter focus groups, and social-worker interviews about individual cases. It examined a subsidy intended to assist placements across agencies. The report found limited change in agency collaboration attributable to the subsidy; several changes in family-finding practice had begun before it was introduced.

  • Intercountry adopted children as young adults--a Swedish cohort study

    2003 · Sweden

    National registers were used to examine 5,942 intercountry adoptees as young adults. Adoptees more often had psychiatric problems and long-term social-welfare receipt; educational attainment was broadly similar to the general population before socioeconomic adjustment.

  • Intercountry Adoption in Europe 1998–2008: Patterns, Trends and Issues

    2010 · Europe, including UK

    This paper analysed movements of children for adoption between European countries, distinguishing countries sending children from those receiving them. It examined the changing European adoption system and its relationship with policy developments, including European Union enlargement. UK data form part of the comparison.

  • Intergenerational transmission of attachment: A qualitative study on eight adopted children

    2025 · United Kingdom (regional recruitment not established)

    Researchers analysed attachment narratives from eight late-adopted adolescents, using story-stem assessments in childhood and Friends and Family Interviews in early adolescence. Positive and negative representations were compared according to their adoptive parents’ attachment classifications. Young people placed with parents classified as secure showed increasing positive representations and fewer negative representations over time.

  • Interventions to support looked-after children and young people transitioning out of care to living with adoptive or birth parents or special guardians, or into connected care

    2021 · England-focused review; international evidence

    This review examined interventions supporting moves from care into permanent family arrangements. It included 32 publications from 28 studies, including adoption research from England. Much of the evidence measured whether permanence was achieved rather than subsequent health, safety or wellbeing. An English concurrent-planning comparison reported fewer moves and faster permanence, with methodological limitations.

  • IQ and behavioural adjustment of ex-institutional adolescents

    1989 · United Kingdom

    Researchers followed children who had spent at least their first two years in institutions and were subsequently adopted or returned to birth parents. In adolescence, IQ was associated mainly with later family placement. Teacher questionnaires and interviews with adolescents and parents indicated more behavioural and emotional difficulties in the formerly institutionalised group than in a matched comparison group.

  • Is Early Experience Destiny? Review of Research on Long-Term Outcomes following International Adoption with Special Reference to the British Chinese Adoption Study

    2016 · International / United Kingdom

    This review examines research on outcomes extending into adolescence and adulthood after international adoption, with particular attention to the British Chinese Adoption Study. It considers how early experiences and subsequent family environments relate to psychological and social functioning. The reviewed abstract describes the scope rather than reporting specific outcome estimates.

  • Is it That They Won't Do it, or is it That They Can't?: Executive Functioning and Children Who Have been Fostered and Adopted

    2007 · United Kingdom (regional recruitment not established)

    An analysis of 86 children referred to Family Futures identified difficulties consistent with impaired executive functioning in every child assessed. The authors related the assessment data to their therapeutic approach for fostered and adopted children and proposed explanations for the difficulties.

  • Is sub-nutrition necessary for a poor outcome following early institutional deprivation?

    2008 · United Kingdom; Romania (origin)

    Researchers analysed deprivation duration, undernutrition, head circumference, IQ and mental-health difficulties in 138 Romanian adoptees, with comparison groups. Several adverse outcomes were associated with deprivation duration independently of undernutrition. Smaller head circumference explained only some associations in particular subgroups.

  • It changed my life completely: user views and experiences of post-adoption services

    2003 · England (West Midlands)

    This doctorate examined users’ experiences of West Midlands Post Adoption Service. Methods included enquiry records, support-group data, a postal survey, 41 user interviews, focus groups and work with an adopted child. Participants included adoptees and other people affected by adoption. Many reported difficulty finding appropriate help before reaching the service; most described benefits from its support and relationships with workers.

  • IV. Developmental course of deprivation-specific psychological patterns: early manifestations, persistence to age 15, and clinical features

    2010 · United Kingdom; Romania (origin)

    This separately indexed empirical research chapter forms part of the ERA adolescent follow-up monograph. Its title identifies the research topic, but the indexed record supplies no abstract. Findings are not summarised because the underlying chapter was not reviewed.

  • IX. Risk, causation, mediation, and moderation

    2010 · England / Romania (adopted into UK families)

    This ERA monograph chapter brings together cohort findings concerning risk, causation, possible pathways connecting early deprivation to later outcomes, and factors that may alter these associations. It also presents additional data on genetic moderation of institutional deprivation effects. The abstract identifies the analysis topics but does not report the direction or size of the new genetic results.

  • Joining a New Family: The Views and Experiences of Young People Placed with Permanent Families during Middle Childhood

    2005 · United Kingdom

    Young people placed with permanent families at ages 5–11 were interviewed six years later about joining their families, relationships and belonging. Many described taking considerable time to settle but subsequently feeling part of the family. Some described a new start, while a small minority remained unsettled.

  • Joining New Families: A Study of Adoption and Fostering in Middle Childhood

    1998 · United Kingdom (regional recruitment not established)

    This research book examines adoption and permanent fostering in middle childhood. Its bibliographic identity was checked against the authors’ university publication record and a later article from the research programme. The underlying book was not reviewed, so no findings are summarised here.

  • Just letterbox? A study of indirect contact in adoption

    2014 · England

    The study began with quantitative analysis of 138 children placed for adoption in one authority and developed into qualitative research on indirect letterbox contact. It examined planned and actual contact and the experiences surrounding letterbox arrangements.