After Adoption: Direct Contact and Relationships

Few children nowadays are placed for adoption with no form of contact planned with birth relatives and it has become common professional practice to advocate direct rather than indirect contact. Practice has outstripped evidence in this respect and not enough is known about how contact arrangements actually work out, particularly for older children adopted from state care. Such children have often experienced neglect, and sometimes abuse, and have frequently been adopted without parental agreement. Based on research with a large number of adoptive parents, children and birth relatives,After Adoptionconsiders the impact of direct post-adoption contact on all concerned in such cases. It also discusses the development of adoption policy and law, particularly with regard to the legal and social consequences of adoption. The authors review research on adopted children's contact with their birth families and explore through interviews what helps and hinders the relationship between adoptedchildren and their biological parents.After Adoptionchallenges readers to re-think the relationship between adoption and the possibility of post-adoption contact and at the same time provides a comprehensive understanding of adoption issues. It is a timely and valuable addition to the literature on adoption, making a substantial contribution to policy and practice.

Carole Smith is a Senior Lecturers in the Department of Applied Social Science at the University of Manchester.