Unlike in the past, most adoption agencies today offer birth parents and adoptive parents the opportunity to share identifying information and have contact with each other. To understand the impacts of different open adoption arrangements, a qualitative descriptive study using a snowball sample of 44 adoptive parents throughout New England began…

There is a growing practice of adoption services on the Internet with varying degrees of regulation, depending on whether it is domestic infant adoption, public foster care adoption, or international adoption. Regulation is particularly lacking in domestic infant adoptions, with Web sites connecting prospective birth and adoptive parents,…

What are the factors that keep adoptive parents and birth parents connected and sustain their kinship relationships over time? This is the central research question critically reviewed across studies dating from 1987 to 2000. A preliminary review of the literature revealed 15 to 20 studies within this 13-year scope limited to the perspective of…

Failed adoption is defined as removal of the adoptive child at any time between placement and legal adoption. A study of failed adoptions in a statewide adoption agency found a failure rate of less than 3 percent. Reasons for failure are analyzed and implications for practice are suggested. (Author)

Conducted qualitative study of adoptive parents' (n=21 couples) reactions to recent open adoptions of their infants. Findings indicated overwhelmingly positive feelings about open adoption. Respondents often noted that issue of openness was eclipsed by other concerns: coping with infertility, finding a baby, dealing with personnel, and dealing…

Gay men and lesbians often encounter barriers when they pursue adoption. Adoption workers are expected to make decisions regarding child placement using the best interest standard. However, this decision-making model does not adequately consider intrapersonal, interpersonal, and organizational factors that affect the use of the standard. This…

The practice of international adoption of children is critiqued, using an egalitarian concept of a distributive method of social justice. From this perspective, international adoption may be perceived as contradictory to principles of social justice by ignoring the social context within which it occurs. Possible solutions are critiqued and…

Surveyed adolescent mothers who placed their children for adoption (N=146) and adolescent mothers who parented their children (N=123). Found mothers who relinquished children were more likely to complete vocational training, delay marriage, be employed after births, and live in higher income households than mothers who did not; found few…

This article presents a study of a key indicator of the validity of the adoptive screening process--the level of agreement among caseworkers in their decision to accept or reject applicants. Ti was found that worker agreement is not as high as desirable. (Author/BW)

Although the number of nonrelative adoptions is decreasing, stepparent adoptions are not. These adoptions are viewed as nonproblematic family business separate from the general adoption picture. This article examines demographic data in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, from 55 stepparent adoptions concerning stepparent adopters, birth parents, and…

Compared records of 32 couples who achieved pregnancy during the adoption process with records of couples who did not. Findings suggested that medical diagnosis, age, and emotional components of the adoption study process were intertwined determining factors in couples' achieving pregnancy. (NRB)

Surveyed 114 adult adoptees who had reunions with their birth parents. Those who searched were stimulated to do so by life-cycle transition, need to get background information, and need to complete their sense of identity. For most adoptees, their self-esteem improved and their relationship with their adoptive parents was strengthened as result of…

Examined experiences of 215 young birthmothers who placed their infants for adoption through 30 maternity residences and agencies in 13 states. Examined prebirth services they received, their immediate postbirth experiences, and characteristics of their adoption arrangements. Found that several service-procedural variables were related to…

The most significant finding of the study was that 58 percent of the sample did not have children by birth at the time of adoption. Another major finding was that half of these interracial placements were agency initiated. Other findings are also discussed. (Author/CG)

Article explores parents' reactions now that their adopted children are school age. The research revealed changes in the openness in the adoptions over time and identified four dimensions along which open adoptions vary. Findings showed parents' enthusiasm for the openness in their adoptions, regardless of type and extent of openness. Implications…