Adoptee Rights
Research

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  • Born into care: Evidence of a failed state

    2020 · England

    The researchers used freedom-of-information data to examine entry into care during the first week of life in England between 2007 and 2017. Including voluntary placements produced a higher count than earlier research. Rates rose and varied between local authorities; larger increases were associated with deprivation and poorer inspection ratings. The authors connected increasing newborn entry to care with adoption rates. This concerns pathways into the adoption system, rather than adoptees’ later experiences.

  • Breaking the Barriers to School Attendance: Let adopted and kinship children take their seat in the classroom

    2024 · England; wider United Kingdom evidence

    This report analyses England’s attendance data for previously looked-after children alongside existing research on adopted and kinship children. It examines absence coding and barriers to classroom participation. The analysis identifies difficulties distinguishing mental-health-related absence, unmet support needs and exclusion from lessons within existing reporting systems.

  • Bridging the Gap: Giving Adopted Children an Equal Chance in School

    2018 · United Kingdom

    A school-wellbeing survey gathered responses from 2,218 adoptive parents and 1,972 adopted children and young people. Children reported anxiety, difficulty understanding classroom expectations and bullying related to adoption. Parent questionnaires described children’s educational and emotional needs. The report analyses gaps in understanding, support and attainment.

  • Bringing Back the Child: Language Development after Extreme Deprivation

    2014 · United Kingdom (regional recruitment not established)

    This book reports a two-year investigation of three girls adopted into UK families after severe deprivation in Romanian institutions. Researchers analysed everyday conversation, developmental change and standardised tests. The authors interpreted the girls’ language progress as inconsistent with the critical-period models they examined.

  • British-Chinese adoptees and the transracial experience: whiteness, ‘Chineseness’ and the fluidity of privilege

    2026 · United Kingdom

    Focus groups and follow-up interviews with 45 British-Chinese adoptees examine race, belonging and adoption in predominantly white families. Using a constructivist approach and an adoptee researcher’s autoethnographic standpoint, the thesis interprets experiences through postcolonial and critical race theory.

  • Can Genomics Remove Uncertainty from Adoption? Social Workers' and Medical Advisors' Accounts of Genetic Testing

    2022 · England and Wales

    Researchers interviewed 20 social workers, managers, medical advisers and paediatricians from adoption services in England and Wales about genetic testing. Medical professionals described pressure to test children before adoption, while social workers often saw testing as reducing uncertainty. The analysis described how newer genomic tests can also create uncertain results that professionals must interpret, with possible consequences for children’s adoption prospects.

  • Can inattention/overactivity be an institutional deprivation syndrome?

    2001 · United Kingdom; Romania (origin)

    Parents and teachers rated attention, overactivity, conduct and emotional difficulties in 165 Romanian-born adoptees and 52 UK domestic adoptees. Longer deprivation was associated with attention and overactivity problems at age six, with persistence from age four in the earlier-assessed subgroup. The association was not explained by the measured birth-weight, nutritional or cognitive differences and overlapped with attachment difficulties.

  • Changes in Attachment Representations Over the First Year of Adoptive Placement: Narratives of Maltreated Children

    2003 · United Kingdom

    Researchers used story-stem assessments to explore attachment representations in previously maltreated children entering adoptive placements, with an early-adopted comparison group. The paper examines narrative changes during the first year of placement. Its abstract describes preliminary findings and the assessment approach but does not specify the direction or magnitude of those changes.

  • Characterizing newborn and older infant entries into care in England between 2006 and 2014

    2020 · England

    This study examined records for 42,000 children entering care in infancy in England. For children entering before April 2010, it followed care pathways for four years. Adoption occurred during follow-up for 60% of those entering in their first week and 37% of older infants. Other children returned to parents or extended family. About one in six followed particularly unstable care pathways.

  • Charting the trajectories of adopted children's emotional and behavioral problems

    2021 · Wales

    Wales Adoption Cohort data modelled internalising and externalising difficulties over time and associations with pre-adoption risk and parental warmth.

  • Chatting Online With My Other Mother: Adoptive family views and experiences of the use of traditional and technological forms of post-adoption contact

    2015 · UK; regional recruitment breakdown not established

    This doctorate examined how online communication changes contact with birth relatives. It combined an adopter survey with interviews involving adoptive parents and six adopted young people. The research described opportunities for identity exploration and more personal relationships, alongside difficulties arising from unmediated contact. Experiences varied with existing relationships and family circumstances.

  • Child-parent attachment following early institutional deprivation

    2003 · United Kingdom; Romania (origin)

    The study examined attachment to adoptive caregivers at age four in 111 Romanian-born adoptees and 52 UK domestic adoptees. Children exposed to severe deprivation were less often classified as securely attached and more often showed atypical attachment behaviours. Longer deprivation was associated with greater disturbance. Some children combined conventional attachment classifications with atypical behaviours, raising questions about how attachment should be measured in this group.

  • Child-to-adult neurodevelopmental and mental health trajectories after early life deprivation

    2017 · UK; Romania

    The English and Romanian Adoptees study found prolonged early institutional deprivation remained associated with autism-related, attention/overactivity and disinhibited-social-engagement symptoms into young adulthood. Some cognitive difficulties improved while emotional difficulties became more prominent later.

  • Childhood Adoption and Mental Health in Adulthood: UK Biobank

    2019 · United Kingdom

    UK Biobank data including 3,151 adoptees were used to examine adoption status alongside mental-health, psychosocial and socioeconomic measures and polygenic scores.

  • Childhood post-adoption experiences and long-term neurodevelopmental trajectories

    2026 · UK; Romania

    ERA data examined trajectories of autism, ADHD, disinhibited social engagement, cognition and mental health into young adulthood.

  • Children adopted from care: teacher constructions of need and support

    2017 · England and Wales

    Nine primary-school teacher interviews and questionnaires from 84 teachers explored adopted children’s access to education and support. Teachers described difficulties of varying severity, some support within schools, limited external-agency involvement and limited training. Their views of support needs and their own responsibilities differed.

  • Children after adoption: Exploring their psychological needs

    2016 · United Kingdom

    Researchers assessed children placed for adoption by one UK local authority using parent interviews and questionnaires. Of 106 families approached, partial data were obtained for 47 children; 34 had complete assessment data. In the complete-data group, approximately three quarters met criteria for at least one neurodevelopmental or mental-health diagnosis, and fewer than half of those with a mental-health diagnosis had a previous diagnosis.

  • Children and Young People’s Experiences of Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy

    2024 · United Kingdom

    This doctoral research used story-stem tasks and visual methods with six adopted or special-guardianship children aged 8–12 receiving therapy. Analysis examined their perceptions of trust, emotional connection and closeness to caregivers. A therapist focus group was used to examine the interpretation of the children’s material.

  • Children and Young People's Participation and Non-Participation in Research

    2005 · United Kingdom

    This review examined children’s involvement in adoption and fostering research recorded in the Quality Protects database. Of 72 relevant studies conducted since 1991, 38 involved children or young people. It examined reasons for participation, the influence of adults controlling access to children, and strategies used to enable participation. These gatekeeping decisions emerged as a barrier alongside ethical and methodological concerns.

  • Children’s early care experiences and their educational attainment: a population data-linkage study in Wales

    2025 · Wales

    Linked administrative records followed Welsh children born in 2000–2003 to examine how early care histories related to attainment at age seven. Latent class analysis identified seven care profiles. The profile progressing from foster care towards adoption had the highest attainment, while children entering foster care from age four had the lowest.