“…Research suggests that adoptive parents often start their adoption journey with a preference for adopting younger children as older ones can be considered more difficult to place (Dance, Neil and Rogers, 2017; Department for Education [DfE], 2013; Lowe et al, 1999;Rogers, 2017;Triseliotis, Shireman and Hundleby, 1997;Ward, 2011). The factors that influence parents' decisions to adopt older children are investigated here, and the analysis draws on the conceptualisation of adoption as a 'marketplace' whereby potential adoptive parents are aware that they are in competition with other prospective applicants for a limited pool of children (e.g., Higgins and Smith, 2002;Raleigh, 2016;Skidmore, Anderson and Eiswerth, 2016). While acknowledging that the process of matching adults with children involves numerous actors, this study focuses on how this process is experienced by adoptive parents and the reasoning underpinning the decisions they made regarding the formation of their adoptive family.…”