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

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

Alan Rushton, Barbara Maughan, Margaret Grant, Rukmen Sehmi · Adoption & Fostering

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.

Limitations: This reviews and interprets already reported cohort data, not a new independent sample. Historical infant adoptions differ from contemporary care adoptions; comparison groups affect conclusions. Only the publisher-deposited abstract was reviewed; regional coverage and additional methods are not inferred where unstated. Related programme publications may use overlapping participants; these are separate publications, not independent replications. UK research context does not confirm an exclusively England/Wales sample. An author was affiliated with Adoption and Fostering Alliance Scotland. This affiliation is an adoption-sector relationship; it does not establish that the organisation determined the findings.

Research type

Research review / cohort synthesis

Source reviewed

Abstract

Peer reviewed

Yes

Age group

Adults