Variants of Open Adoptions

Abstract

SUMMARY This analysis begins with the argument that conceptual ambiguity and related measurement inconsistencies have surfaced in the growing number of studies about open adoption -because the term subsumes a range of possibilities of contact between birth and adoptive families, as well as other sources of variation which affect the developing post-placement relationship between members of these two families. It then turns to the first report from a longitudinal study of adoptive (n = 41) and associated birth parents (n = 26) based on initial face-to-face (within six months of the placement); subsequent follow-up (telephone) interviews (18 months to two years post-placement) with these families and observations from over three years of fieldwork in the private agency which arranged these adoptions. Three post-placement patterns are identified and distinguished: Rejecters, Acceptors and Embracers. The paper concludes with a discussion about enabling conditions for successful post-placement openness.

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