Age at placement, adoption experience and adult adopted people’s contact with their adoptive and birth mothers: an attachment perspective
Adults described childhood adoption experiences and their current contact with adoptive mothers and, where reunion had occurred, birth mothers. Later placement was associated with less reported belonging and feeling loved, and less frequent later contact with both mothers. An attachment framework was used to interpret these associations.
Limitations: Retrospective accounts and associations cannot establish causal effects of placement age. Pre-placement histories were not collected; age was used as a proxy. The abstract does not give sample size or recruitment geography. Attachment interpretation is not a directly measured childhood attachment diagnosis. Related Howe–Feast publications may overlap.
- Research type
- Retrospective adoptee survey
- Source reviewed
- Abstract
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Age group
- Adults
Study context and review
Age group as recorded: Adults
Adoption context: Mixed adoption pathways
Programme: Children’s Society / Howe–Feast Adoption Search and Reunion
Institutional context: No relationship identified in the material checked
No adoption-sector organisational relationship identified from metadata reviewed. Funding and conflicts were not comprehensively audited; this is not confirmation of institutional independence.
Bibliographic screening. Bibliographic relationships are not a bias or safety rating.
Topics: adoptee voice, adult outcomes, attachment, contact, identity
Review scope: Source checked: Abstract. This does not imply full-text or independent human verification.
Country as recorded: United Kingdom (regional recruitment not established)
- Funding
- Not yet checked for this entry
- Commissioner
- Not yet checked for this entry
- Funder role
- Not yet checked for this entry
- Declared conflicts
- Not yet checked for this entry
- Recruitment
- Not yet checked for this entry
- Adoptee involvement
- Not yet checked for this entry
Entry: study_499dee372457cacb