An exploratory study on open adoptions from foster care in NSW, Australia: Adoptees’ psychosocial functioning, adoptive relationships, post-adoption contact and supports

This is an exploratory study focused on open adoptions from foster care conducted through the public child protection agency in New South Wales, Australia. The results from an online survey completed by 23 respondents indicated that most of the adoptees were reportedly in the normative range of adjustment, had positive relationships with their adoptive parents and had ongoing contact with their birth families. Most of the adoptive parents had received pre-adoption supports to encourage post-adoption contact. These preliminary results are encouraging, but larger and preferably longitudinal studies are needed to guide decision-making regarding adoptions from foster care. The new challenge for the child welfare system is how to collect reliable data about the well-being of children already living in this permanent type of care and how best to support them.

Grief & Loss Resolution among Birth Mothers in Open Adoption

While research has explored birth parent grief and loss, it has not been thorough in exploring how the experience of having an open adoption affects birth parents’ grief and loss experience and resolution. Previous research has highlighted positive effects of open adoptions to date, but is quite limited in regards to the birth parents’ adjustment in current day, open adoptions. This descriptive, qualitative study explores birth parents’ experiences in current day, open adoptions and seeks to understand their experience of grief and loss and their movement towards grief resolution in the context of an open adoption. Findings of this study confirm that the experience of adoption placement involves grief and loss and that openness in adoption helps to mitigate this painful experience. Most notably, birth parents found meaning, comfort, and peace in knowing of their child’s well-being and by having ongoing involvement in the life of the child and adoptive family. This opens new avenues in thinking about adoption and the meanings participants make of it.