Contact after adoption

Decisions about contact between an adopted child and their birth family are an essential part of the child’s placement plan and need to take into account the child’s welfare. It is therefore essential to understand how contact affects adopted children throughout their lives. Research has found that the impact and quality of contact can vary widely. Sometimes it is wanted and valued by children; in other cases it can have an unsettling and disturbing effect. Very little research has included the views of older children and adolescents.

Contact after adoption presents the comprehensive findings of a longitudinal study that followed a group of adopted children, their adoptive parents and birth relatives, where some form of post-adoption contact was planned. The findings are of particular importance due to the study’s duration – the children, all placed under the age of four, have been followed through preschool, middle childhood and into later adolescence.

The key aims of the study were to explore people’s experiences of contact and its impact on children and adults. A strong body of evidence has been collected about the impact of open adoption on all those involved, and on how children’s experiences of and need for contact change as they grow and develop.

Contact after adoption makes an important contribution to the existing research on contact and offers invaluable practice recommendations.

This book id for all those involved in making or managing contact with children and families.

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