Information disclosure and openness in adoption: State policy and empirical evidence

Abstract

Abstract This paper presents the rationale and details of state policy with regard to sealed record statutes and open adoption practice. The empirical work focuses on attitudes toward, and experiences with, openness in adoption in a sample of 1,274 adoptive parents in 743 adoptive homes in New York State. Results indicate that a substantial majority of adoptive parents in the study favor a change in state statutes allowing greater openness in adoption and that mothers are more open to the concept of information disclosure than adoptive fathers. Open adoptions were practiced in only a minority of adoptions in this study. When contact does exist, it is far more likely to be with a birth mother than a birth father. Openness in adoption was found to differ by age, race, and by prior experience with fostering or adoption. Older adoptive mothers were more supportive of open adoption records, while white adoptive fathers and both adoptive mothers and adoptive fathers who had prior experience with fostering or adoptions were less open to the concept of open adoption records. Conclusions are draw and recommendations made for future policy in this area.

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