Contact in Adoption: The Experience of Adoptive Families in the USA

Wrobel, Gretchen Miller; Grotevant, Harold D.; Berge, Jerica M.; Mendenhall, Tai J.; McRoy, Ruth G.

doi:10.1177/030857590302700108

Cited by 16 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Relationships between birth and adoptive families are dynamic and transactional (Neil and Howe, 2004), with each party contributing their unique skills, resources, needs and expectations. When understood in a lifespan context (Wrobel et al, 2003), it is apparent that the roles and needs of each of the participants will change over time.…”

Section: Contact and Adoptive Relationshipsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Open Adoption: Adoptive Parents' Experiences of Birth Family Contact and Talking to Their Child about Adoption

MacDonald¹,

McSherry²

2011

Adoption & Fostering

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The trend towards more open adoption presents adopters with unique parenting challenges associated with satisfying the child's curiosity about their origins and maintaining relationships with birth family through contact. This article by Mandi MacDonald and Dominic McSherry focuses on the experiences of 20 sets of adoptive parents who were interviewed as part of the Northern Ireland Care Pathways and Outcomes Study. Interviews were analysed following the principles of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). The article explores adoptive parents' experience of talking to their child about adoption and of post-adoption contact with members of the birth family. Adopters discussed adoption sensitively with their child but were concerned that difficult and complex family histories would present a risk to the child's self-esteem and emotional well-being. All forms of contact proved emotionally and practically burdensome; however, adopters were committed to making it work for the child's benefit and were open to increased contact should the child wish it in the future. There was little relationship with birth family outside of formal contact. The study reveals the need for a mechanism to facilitate communication with birth families if adopters are to be able to respond to the child's changing need for contact and information.

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Section: Contact and Adoptive Relationshipsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Open Adoption: Adoptive Parents' Experiences of Birth Family Contact and Talking to Their Child about Adoption

MacDonald¹,

McSherry²

2011

Adoption & Fostering

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“…Despite advances in legislation and practice, research evidence on whether contact may be useful is still evolving and remains far from resolved (Neil 2002, 2009). There has been a burgeoning growth of empirical studies on adoption and contact internationally (Iwanec 1987; Rockel & Ryburn 1988; Fratter 1996; Grotevant & McRoy 1998; Neil 2002; Wrobel et al. 2003; Neil & Howe 2004; Smith & Logan 2004), but differences in design, sampling and definition make it difficult to generalize about its consequences.…”

Section: The Research Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nonetheless, some form of contact with birth relatives is now the usual plan for adopted children in England and Wales (Parker 1999; Neil 2002) and the USA (Henney et al. 1998; Wrobel et al. 2003).…”

Section: The Research Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

Preparation and planning for face‐to‐face contact after adoption: the experience of adoptive parents in a UK study

Logan

2010

Child & Family Social Work

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Whilst there is a general international trend towards more open adoption, there is considerable variation between agencies in the extent to which they are prepared to support different forms of contact arrangements. Agencies have a pivotal role to play in decisions about contact and early planning that is integrated into the assessment and preparation of prospective adopters is fundamental to its success. This paper reports on adoptive parents' experiences of the process of preparation and planning for direct, face‐to‐face contact. During preparation, agencies were clearly getting the message across to prospective adopters about the importance of contact for the child's well being. However, insufficient attention was directed at helping adopters to anticipate their feelings towards birth relatives and their responses to the kinds of management issues that might arise after adoption. There was considerable variation in the extent to which adopters were involved in the process of planning detailed contact arrangements, and this seemed to bear relevance on the success or otherwise of subsequent contact arrangements.

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“…Morgan (2006) sent question cards to adopted children to find out how they felt about the process of being adopted and found that children wanted to be more involved in aspects of their adoptions, by being given up-to-date information and being consulted in decision-making. In addition, the Minnesota-Texas Adoption Research Project (MTARP) has also conducted interviews with children to find out how adoptees in the USA feel about contact arrangements with their birth families (Wrobel et al, 2003;Mendenhall et al, 2004). They found that directly interviewing children about their feelings added a new insight to the existing research on openness in adoption, unlike previous literature that had 'been carried out through the perspectives of adults, leaving an understanding of children's experiences vulnerable to the subjective interpretations of others' (Mendenhall et al, 2004, p 186).…”

Section: Involving Children In Adoption Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Experience of Adoption (1) A Study of Intercountry and Domestic Adoption from the child's point of view

Hawkins

Beckett

Castle

et al. 2007

Adoption & Fostering

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Amanda Hawkins, Celia Beckett, Jenny Castle, Christine Groothues, Edmund Sonuga-Barke, Emma Colvert, Jana Kreppner, Suzanne Stevens and Michael Rutter compared views about adoption for two groups of 11-year-old children (n = 180). The team's analyses compared the views of children according to their pre-adoption background: UK domestic adoptees placed before the age of six months versus intercountry adoptees who had experienced extreme deprivation for up to three-and-a-half years in Romania prior to placement (the Romanian group was further broken down by age at placement). Remarkably few differences were found between these groups, with the exception of two areas. Older-placed adopted children from Romania were significantly more likely to find it difficult to talk about adoption than domestic adoptees, and to feel different from their adoptive families. However, supplementary analyses suggested that these differences were due to increased levels of difficulties within the older-placed Romanian group, rather than whether they were adopted internationally or domestically. The implications of the similarities and differences between these groups for policy and practice are discussed.

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Contact in Adoption: The Experience of Adoptive Families in the USA

Cited by 16 publications

References 12 publications

Open Adoption: Adoptive Parents' Experiences of Birth Family Contact and Talking to Their Child about Adoption

Open Adoption: Adoptive Parents' Experiences of Birth Family Contact and Talking to Their Child about Adoption

Preparation and planning for face‐to‐face contact after adoption: the experience of adoptive parents in a UK study

The Experience of Adoption (1) A Study of Intercountry and Domestic Adoption from the child's point of view

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