Comparing long-term placements for young children in care: Does placement type really matter?

The establishment of emotional bonds is one of the most important tasks of the adoptive family. Most research about attachment in adoption focuses on young adopted children, as opposed to adoptees in other stages of development. The present study aims at assessing the adopted adolescents' self‐perception of attachment relationships with their adoptive parents, by pairing them with a group of institutionalized adolescents and another one of adolescents in the community. One hundred sixty‐five adolescents (55 adopted, 55 in residential care, and 55 living with their birth family), aged 12 to 19, participated in this study. Data were collected using the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment to assess attachment relationships with parents on three dimensions: trust, communication, and alienation. The results showed that adoptees perceived their relationship with their parents in a similar way to peers in the community and presented higher results when compared to institutionalized adolescents in trust and communication and lower scores in alienation. The results highlighted the relevance of family context experiences and suggested that adoption can offer the possibility of building a secure attachment relationship, which is not the case in the context of collective care, as happens within institutionalized care.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Portuguese adopted adolescents' perception of attachment relationships to parents

Barroso

Barbosa‐Ducharne

Coelho

2017

“…Research has explored the challenges and many aspects to securing a stable and long-term placement for children who can no longer live with their birth parent(s), including the possible effects of placement or carer type on child outcomes (Biehal, Ellison, Baker, & Sinclair, 2010;McSherry, Fargas, & Weatherall, 2016;Sinclair, Baker, Lee, & Gibbs, 2007;Triseliotis, 2002). A core aspect in planning and achieving long-term placements is time.…”

Section: Timelinessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adoption and permanence planning in Scotland: Impact of the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 on key processes and timescales

Hanson

Henderson²,

Kurlus³

2018

Adoption and permanence planning has been a key feature of Scotland's policy in relation to children and young people who are "looked after." Although policy and law has significantly developed in recent years, there has been comparatively little research on permanence processes in Scotland. This paper outlines key findings from the first comprehensive study of permanence planning in Scotland. It examines the process for two cohorts of children where adoption or other types of permanence orders were made. The children were selected under the long standing Adoption (Scotland) Act 1978 and the more recent Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007. In total, 300 cases were examined, analysing data from the children's first contact with services through to the order made by the Scottish Courts. This paper pays particular attention to the timescales found at key stages under the two sets of legislation and asks what difference the change in legislation has made.

“…; Siegel & Smith ; McSherry et al . ). This brings together members of the child's adoptive and birth family into a new adoptive kinship network (Grotevant ), with previously unrelated individuals linked via their separate relationships with the adopted child.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

‘A picture of who we are as a family’: conceptualizing post‐adoption contact as practices of family display

MacDonald

2015

Social work has a central role in negotiating and supporting birth family contact following adoption from care. This paper argues that family display (Finch) offers a useful conceptual resource for understanding relationships in the adoptive kinship network as they are enacted through contact. It reports on an interpretative phenomenological analysis of adoptive parents' accounts of open adoption from care that revealed direct and indirect contact to be contexts in which they and birth relatives performed family display practices: communicating the meaning of their respective relationships with the adopted child and seeking recognition that this was a legitimate family relationship. The analysis explores how family display was performed, and the impact of validating or invalidating responses. It aims to illuminate these social and interpretive processes involved in adoptive kinship in order to inform social work support for contact. The findings suggest that successful contact may be promoted by helping adoptive and birth relatives validate the legitimacy of the other's kin connection with the child, and through arrangements that facilitate family‐like interactions.