Increased attention is being paid to open adoption arrangements between birth parents and adopted children and families. This study examines openness and contact among 469 adoptions at 14 years postadoption from the fourth wave of the California Long-Range Adoption Study (CLAS) and 378 adoptions matched across all waves. The proportion of families…

Objective: The purpose of this study was to review empirical evidence of the effects of placement in group care compared to other interventions. Method: Two-group empirical studies were identified and effect sizes for all reported outcomes were calculated. Results: Nineteen two-group studies were found that compared group care with family foster…

Every state requires a home study before the placement of foster children for adoption. This article examines the history of home studies, presents results from expert interviews on the changing processes and purposes of home studies, and explores current challenges for the field. The article also introduces the Structured Analysis Family…

Discusses research areas most critical to the enhancement of adoption practice and policy. These include adoption indicators, recruitment and retention, selection of placements, procedural barriers to the adoption of foster children, foster-adoptive homes, kinship adoption, independent adoption, postplacement services, subsidies, group care…

Examination of older child adoption in northern California from 1980 to 1984 showed a decreased disruption rate of 10.2 percent, largely attributable to the greater use of foster parent adoptions. Placement in which siblings were together were not exceptionally likely to disrupt. A classification of cases using five variables available at…

This follow-up study of international and domestic adoptions, involving participants first studied in 1981, investigated the role of family size and structure, particularly the presence of both biological and adopted children in a family, on adoption outcomes. Data suggested that families who adopt children and have birth children may have less…

Followed 3,873 children under 6 years of age when they entered out-of-home care to determine whether, over the next 6 years, they were reunified with their biological families, adopted, remained in out-of-home care, or experienced another outcome. Found that age at time of placement and race/ethnicity had substantial direct effects on outcomes.…

Examined placement stability among a cohort of children in out-of-home care. Found that children in kinship care, regardless of age, had fewer placement moves than those in nonkinship care. Children who had more than one placement move during their first year were more likely to experience placement instability in long-term out-of-home care. (JPB)

Examines characteristics of children adopted in adolescence and characteristics associated with disruptions of adolescent adoptions. (BB)