Adoption & Fostering
Abstracts
Spring 2004 - Vol 28 (1)
Identity, race, religion and adoption: the public and legal view
Tina Patel, Catherine Williams and Peter Marsh
Key words: adoption, religion, children, race, public views, adoption law, identity
The importance of the cultural identity of a child awaiting adoption, in terms of 'race', religion and ethnic background, is the subject of continuing debate and often controversial and heated discussion. Tina Patel et al seek to examine the public and legal perspectives of the debate and in particular the degrees to which the two positions correspond with each other. Over 1,200 questionnaires were used on a stratified sample of members of the general public throughout England and Wales to gather data about public perceptions of adoption. The questionnaires were then analysed to see whether certain characteristics, such as age, gender, religion, ethnic background and family environment, affected public views of the religious and cultural identity of a child in need of adoption. The data gathered from the questionnaires were also examined against the law on adoption, in order to ascertain whether there was any correspondence between the public and the legal views. The authors present the findings from the study, along with a discussion of the relationship between the public perceptions and legal positions on race, religion, identity and adoption.
Tina Patel is a doctoral student, Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield
Catherine Williams is Senior Lecturer, Department of Law, University of Sheffield
Peter Marsh is Professor of Child and Family Welfare, Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield
Adopted Koreans and the development of identity in the 'third space'
Tobias Hübinette
Key words: international adoption, Korea, adopted Koreans, identity, 'third space'
Since 1953, 150,000 Korean children have been adopted to 15 main host countries in the West. They constitute the largest international adoptee group worldwide. An adopted Korean movement has existed on an international level since the 1990s and is today trying to formulate an identity and community of its own beyond Western adoption ideology and Korean nationalism. Hübinette outlines the history of international adoption from Korea, Western and Korean perspectives on international adoption and adopted Koreans, and the emergence of an adopted Korean identity transcending 'race', citizenship, culture, religion and language in what he terms as the 'third space'.
Tobias Hübinette is a PhD candidate in Korean Studies at the University of Stockholm, Sweden
Group work for foster carers caring for children with complex problems
Kim Golding and Wendy Picken
Key words: group work with foster carers, foster carer support, foster children and attachment, looked after children
Group work provides foster carers with an important means of receiving support and psycho-education. It gives them opportunities to explore different ways of understanding and managing foster children. This article describes the use of two different types of groups developed by the Primary Care and Support Team in Worcestershire. The first is based on a parent-training programme. Group facilitators help carers to consider different management techniques and think about their use with the complex children they are looking after. Within these groups considerable interest was shown in attachment theory as a way of understanding the often perplexing behaviour displayed by the children. This led to the development of a second group focused specifically on their attachment needs. Routine, practice-based evaluation has been carried out and is reported here. The limited evaluation suggests that group interventions can help carers to increase their understanding of the needs of foster children and their skill in managing these children on a day-to-day basis.
Kim Golding is a clinical psychologist, Wyre Forest Primary Care Trust
Wendy Picken is a social worker, Worcestershire County Council
What happens in the foster family? A study of fostering relationships in Sweden
Ingrid Höjer
Key words: fostering, foster carers' children, Sweden
The fostering assignment can have a great impact on the inner dynamics of the foster family. In a study at the University of Gothenburg, 366 foster carers (192 women and 174 men) responded to a questionnaire, and the wife and husband in 17 foster families were interviewed. Findings reveal how, through fostering, men and women became engaged in a kind of teamwork where both partners were working towards a mutual goal. This partnership seemed to increase the closeness between the couple. Women mainly initiated fostering, but men eventually became equally engaged. Both male and female carers were committed to the fostering task, which at times made it hard for them to combine foster care and engaging as a parent with their own children. Biological children had less access to parental time and attention, as the problems of their foster siblings had to be the first priority for their parents.
Ingrid Höjer is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Social Work, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
The outcomes of late permanent placements: the adolescent years
Alan Rushton and Cherilyn Dance
Key words: adoption, adoption outcomes, disruption, longitudinal study
Using interview and questionnaire data based on a sample of 133 late-placed adoption and permanent foster care placements, the authors report on the outcomes of their prospective study as the children arrive at their teenage years (range 11-16). After a year, the young people remained with their new families in 92 per cent of cases and six years later 71 per cent of families were still together, a rate that is largely consistent with similar research samples. The disruptions took place at all points, but on average occurred at 34 months after placement. The reasons for placement endings were examined and differences between the disrupted and the 'continuing but unhappy' placements were explored. In the continuing placements, the parents' views of their experiences fell into three groups: the happy throughout, the happy now but not always so, and the largely negative responses. Most of the parents in the latter group were still being severely tested by developmental and behavioural problems, including aggression, destructiveness and over-activity.
Alan Rushton is Reader in Adoption Studies at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London
Cherilyn Dance is a Senior Research Fellow, Department of Applied Social Studies, University of Luton
Changes in birth father involvement in stepfamily adoption in the Republic of Ireland
Celia Loftus
Key words: birth fathers, stepfamily adoption, Republic of Ireland
The majority of domestic adoption applications in the Republic of Ireland today concern the adoption of children into their stepfamilies. These adoptions are processed under the Adoption Act 1952 and the adoption severs connections with the child's non-custodial birth parent, usually the birth father. Birth fathers had no legal entitlement to inclusion in any decision about the proposed adoption of their children until the Adoption Act 1998. This Act allows for the legal notification/consultation of a birth father where his child is placed for adoption. It does not grant him the right to consent or contest the adoption. This study under discussion relates to the impact of legal change on the practice of involving birth fathers in the stepfamily adoption decisions relating to their children. It formed part of the documentary research and analysis of 269 confidential Adoption Board files on stepfamily adoptions during the years 1985, 1992 and 1999. The findings of the study are related to changing behaviour and expectations in fatherhood as evidenced in other research.
Celia Loftus is a social worker, Irish Adoption Board, Dublin
Feedback: Responses to 'Missing the match'
Jeanne Kaniuk and John Simmonds
Work in progress: Long-term implications for families formed by surrogacy or donor-assisted conception
Julia Feast and Marilyn Crawshaw
Legal notes: England and Wales
Deborah Cullen
Legal notes: Scotland
Alexandra Plumtree
Legal notes: Northern Ireland
Kerry O'Halloran
Health notes: The dental health of looked after children
Dr Margaret Poynor
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