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Children’s Participation in the Family Justice System: Translating Principles into Practice
2003 · England and Wales
This chapter compares interview research on adoption and parental divorce. Adopted children described uncertainty about courts, isolation during moves and reluctance to disclose adoption at school. The authors analyse how legal participation and communication relate to these accounts.
Citizens’ views in four jurisdictions on placement policies for maltreated children
2017 · England; Finland; Norway; USA (California)
A survey asked 4,003 members of representative population samples in four jurisdictions to respond to a child-placement scenario. Overall, 75% favoured adoption and 25% long-term foster care. Responses differed in their correspondence with existing national practice. This is evidence about public attitudes towards decisions affecting children, not evidence that either placement produces better outcomes.
Communicating with adopted and care experienced individuals about their history: exploring the psychological and relational impact.
2024 · United Kingdom
A qualitative evidence synthesis examined life story work with adopted and care-experienced people. An empirical study interviewed adopted people and professionals about communicating personal histories. Themes concerned spoken and unspoken stories, openness, empathy and matching communication to the individual’s readiness. Communication could offer connection and control while also creating emotional and relational challenges.
Comparison of Adopted and Nonadopted Individuals Reveals Gene–Environment Interplay for Education
2020 · United Kingdom
Data from 6,311 adoptees in UK Biobank were used to compare genetic-score associations with educational attainment among adopted and non-adopted participants.
Concurrent Planning: A Retrospective Study of the Continuities and Discontinuities of Care, and Their Impact on the Development of Infants and Young Children Placed for Adoption by the Coram Concurrent Planning Project
2009 · England
Carers reflected on birth-family contact for 27 children subsequently adopted and one reunited with birth parents through Coram’s concurrent-planning project. Most children entered these placements by five months. Accounts described both continuity of care and disruption around frequent contact sessions. The author interpreted later attachments to carers as offsetting some early discontinuities.
Concurrent Planning: Report of a scoping exercise carried out for Faith in Families, Nottingham
2011 · England
Interviews and focus groups with local-authority staff and legal professionals explored introducing concurrent planning in the East Midlands. Participants identified uncertainty about the relationship between fostering and adoption, court decisions and professional responsibilities. The report examines service feasibility, rather than evaluating outcomes for participating children.
Contact after adoption: a follow-up in late adolescence
2013 · England
A late-adolescence follow-up of the Contact After Adoption cohort, examining adopted young people's, adoptive parents' and birth relatives' experiences of post-adoption contact as children grew older.
Contact after Adoption: A longitudinal study of post adoption contact arrangements
2015 · United Kingdom
A long-running UK study of adopted children, adoptive parents and birth relatives where post-adoption contact had been planned. The research followed children placed under age four from the preschool years through middle childhood and into later adolescence. It examined how different forms of contact were experienced, how contact affected children and adults, and how children's wishes and needs changed as they grew.
Contact after Adoption: The Role of Agencies in Making and Supporting Plans
2002 · England
Questionnaire data on 168 recently adopted children and interviews concerning 36 children with face-to-face contact were used to examine how agencies made and supported post-adoption contact plans.
Contact between Children Placed Away from Home and their Birth Parents: Research Issues and Evidence
1997 · International review including United Kingdom
This review examined research on contact between children living away from their birth parents and their families. The authors identified weaknesses in study design and analysis that, in their assessment, limited conclusions about either beneficial or adverse effects of contact.
Contact following placement for adoption: the views of children, adopters and birth relatives
2007 · England, UK
This paper reports experiences of post-adoption contact from members of the adoption network, including children, adoptive parents and birth relatives, and examines how contact arrangements were experienced after placement.
Continuing in post-16 education: The views of adopted young people
2022 · United Kingdom
Five adopted young people aged 16–19 were interviewed about continuing in education. Thematic analysis identified a positive sense of self, supportive people, supportive approaches and supportive systems as relevant to their decisions and experiences. Participants described adoption-aware staff and the educational setting’s ethos as part of that support.
Costs and outcomes of non-infant adoptions
2006 · England
This research followed 130 children in one English area after an adoption recommendation in the 1990s. It examined whether adoption occurred, progress through care, earlier experiences, decisions, delays and service costs. It also collected adopter and foster-carer accounts. The publisher description establishes the scope; detailed findings from the book have not been reviewed for this record.
Curiosity and opportunities: The impact of accessing adoption information on adopted adults and the decision to search for birth relatives
2020 · England and Wales / Hong Kong-to-UK adoption
This doctorate by publication brings together nine publications from three studies undertaken during 1997–2013. Participants were mostly adopted in England and Wales, including women adopted from Hong Kong. The synthesis examines how curiosity about origins and opportunities to obtain information and find relatives interact across adoptees’ lives.
Damaged identity and the search for kinship in adult adoptees
1989 · United Kingdom
Seventy-six adults from an organisation helping adoptees trace origins were studied. The paper explores identity, searching and reunion and notably reports that discovering siblings was often experienced positively.
Developing the Incredible Years Webster-Stratton Parenting Skills Training Programme for Use with Adoptive Families
2005 · England
Four Incredible Years courses at Coram Family were adapted for adoptive families. The evaluation collected parent reports and observations of adoption-related issues raised in sessions. Parents reported reductions in children’s hyperactivity, conduct and behavioural difficulties after the courses.
Developmental catch-up, and deficit, following adoption after severe global early privation. English and Romanian Adoptees (ERA) Study Team
1998 · United Kingdom; Romania (origin)
Researchers assessed physical growth and cognitive development at age four in 111 children adopted into the UK from Romania before age two and 52 children adopted within the UK before six months. Children arriving from Romania before six months showed nearly complete catch-up by age four. Those arriving later also improved, but on average had lower cognitive scores. Age at entry to the UK was associated with subsequent cognitive functioning.
Did birth relative attendance at adoption panels assist decision-making? Evaluating the Suffolk experience
2014 · England (Suffolk)
Researchers analysed adoption panel minutes and agency statistics from Suffolk’s scheme enabling birth relatives to attend panels. Attendance was associated with fuller, more sensitive discussion and greater attention to heritage. Occasionally representations helped divert an adoption proposal towards kinship care. Parents also used attendance to leave accounts for their children.
Disinhibited Attachment Disorder in UK Adopted Children During Middle Childhood: Prevalence, Validity and Possible Developmental Origin
2016 · United Kingdom (regional breakdown not specified)
Researchers compared 60 children adopted from UK care with 26 children referred for behavioural difficulties and 55 lower-risk comparison children. They used parent and teacher reports and researcher observations to assess behaviour then described as disinhibited attachment disorder. It was identified more often in the adopted group and was associated with first entering care between 7 and 24 months. Its association with ADHD did not account for the difference between groups.
Do children adopted from British foster care show difficulties in executive functioning and social communication?
2017 · United Kingdom
Thirty primary-school-aged UK children adopted from foster care completed cognitive and executive-function assessments; parents completed behaviour, executive-function and social-communication questionnaires. The children performed below age comparisons on two of three computerised executive tasks, and parents reported elevated behavioural and executive difficulties. All scored below the autism-screening threshold.