Adoption & Fostering
Abstracts
Summer 2007 - Vol 31 (2)
Editorial
Roger Bullock
Websites featuring children waiting for adoption: a cross-country review
Madelyn Freundlich, Sarah Gerstenzang and Meredith Holtan
Key words: adoption, photolisting, adoptive
family recruitment
With the growth in the number of children in government systems
who are in need of adoptive families, the USA, Canada and the
Russian Federation have implemented national internet-based
photolisting programmes. In their examination of these website
programmes, the authors found that they bear some similarities
but also have unique features that may reflect social and cultural
factors, level of government support and length of operational
time. Differences are noted in the ways that featured children
are presented and how families may search and access information
on the websites. The implications of these differences are discussed
as a basis for better understanding current practice in the
photolisting of children and the issues that may need to be
considered in defining best practice in this area.
Madelyn Freundlich is Child Welfare Consultant,
New York City, New York, USA
Sarah Gerstenzang is Assistant Project Director,
Adoption Exchange Association, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Meredith Holtan is Project Co-ordinator, Harvard
School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Finding families on the web: Be My Parent goes online
in the UK
Mo O’Reilly
Key words: adoption, fostering, online photolisting,
online family-finding
Mo O’Reilly describes the development of Be My Parent
online, a web-based family-finding service launched by BAAF
(British Association for Adoption and Fostering) in May 2007.
The site has been set up to offer a new way for families to
find a child to adopt or foster, and uses the potential of the
web to provide more detailed profiles of children in need of
permanent placement.
Mo O’Reilly is Director of Child Placement,
Be My Parent, BAAF
Intercountry adoption on the internet
Shihning Chou, Kevin Browne and Melanie Kirkaldy
Key words: intercountry adoption, internet,
children’s rights, Hague Convention, UNCRC
This study investigated whether intercountry adoption agencies
on the internet upheld the principles of the UN Convention of
the Rights of the Child (UNCRC 1989) and the Hague Convention
(1993). A systematic search on the UK-based Google search engine
was carried out. The search yielded 2,383 hits, of which 116
were adoption agencies. All 116 agencies were registered in
the USA and 37 per cent of the agency websites clearly stated
that potential adoptive parents are allowed to select a child
they wish to adopt, with 34 per cent offering the option to
apply online. The average total fee for intercountry adoption
was US$20,338 with an average application fee of US$273.97.
The majority of websites displayed photographs of children:
9.5 per cent showed named photos of children who had been adopted,
25 per cent displayed named photos of children currently available
for adoption and the remaining 50 per cent of websites displayed
general photographs of children with no identifiers. Furthermore,
18.1 per cent of agencies used terminology that promoted children
as a commodity than as individuals in need. There was a positive
correlation between agencies using such terminology and those
displaying photographs with personal information. If these views
are accepted, it means that it can be estimated that at least
38 per cent of the agencies were in breach of the UNCRC and
the Hague Convention.
Shihning Chou is Research Associate, School
of Psychology, University of Liverpool
Kevin Browne is Professor of Forensic and
Child Psychology, University of Liverpool
Melanie Kirkaldy is a graduate in psychologyat
the University of Birmingham
Theorising the racial identity development of transracial
adoptees: a symbolic interactionist perspective
Tina Patel
Key words: transracial adoption, ‘race’,
identity, social construction, symbolic interaction, oral life
history
Tina Patel presents findings from an empirical study carried
out in Britain in 2000-2003 into the racial identity development
of a small sample of adults who were transracially adopted as
children. A symbolic interactionist perspective is applied to
the analysis of the ways in which, to varying degrees, the adoptees
experienced a number of difficulties tied to racial differences
from the adoptive family, the racialised questions and categorisations
of others, and inclusion and exclusion issues with birth and
adoptive heritages. The study also highlights the way in which
adoptees had understood and negotiated these difficulties in
order to develop a particular type of ethnic identity that incorporates
both parts of their birth and adoptive heritages, best represents
how the adoptees see themselves and facilitates the pursuit
of a positive sense of self. Using these findings, a number
of best practice recommendations are made.
Tina Patel is Lecturer in Criminology and
Sociology, Liverpool John Moores University
Is it that they won’t do it, or is it that they
can’t? Executive functioning and children who have been
fostered and adopted
Richard Lansdown, Alan Burnell and Marion Allen
Key words: adoption, fostering, executive
functioning, attachment
The work of the Family Futures Consortium has been increasingly
informed by neurodevelopmental psychology and a consideration
of how environmental trauma can effect the physiological development
of the brain. This has led to the view that the extreme pre-
and post-birth experiences of some accommodated children will
affect their development in a more complex way than had been
hitherto thought, and will require specific remedial therapeutic
help. The authors outline how they came to realise that many
of the children they see show behaviour patterns consistent
with weakness in executive functioning. Data collected on 86
referred children revealed that all had significant difficulties
in this area, a finding of considerable clinical importance
for people working with such families. The basic concepts underlying
executive functioning are outlined and hypotheses on the aetiology
of the difficulties are discussed. The article concludes with
a discussion of the ways in which the authors’ therapeutic
approaches have been modified.
Richard Lansdown is Consultant Psychologist,
Family Futures Consortium, London
Alan Burnell is a Co-Director, Family Futures
Marion Allen is Education Specialist, Family
Futures
Mental health problems among orphanage children in
the Gaza Strip
Lamia Thabet, Abdel Aziz Mousa Thabet, Sajida Abdul Hussein
and Panos Vostanis
Key words: orphan, institutions, residential,
children, emotional, mental health, Gaza
This article reports on a study that aimed to establish the
level of emotional problems among 115 children aged 9-16 years
(average 13.4), who were living in two orphanages in the Gaza
Strip. The children’s age of admission to the orphanage
(average 8.8 years) was higher than in traditional orphanages
in other countries. This was related to the reasons for admission,
following their father’s death, and the inability of their
remaining family to care for them. However, children retained
substantial contact with their family of origin by visiting
during school holidays (88.6%) or being visited at the unit
(97.4%). Using previous standardised mental health measures
completed by the children and their main carers, children demonstrated
high rates of anxiety, depressive and post-traumatic stress
reactions. These mental health problems were strongly inter-related
but were not found to be associated with social/care variables.
Potential implications of the findings for orphanages and other
residential units in developing countries are discussed. These
should take into consideration the socio-cultural characteristics
of each country and limited local resources; involve non-governmental
organisations and local communities; tackle wider stigmatising
attitudes; and instill a child-centred philosophy within these
settings.
Lamia Thabet is Head of Nursing Department,
Al Doura Paediatric Hospital, Gaza
Abdel Aziz Mousa Thabet is Assistant Professor
of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Al Quads University, School
of Public Health, Gaza
Sajida Abdul Hussein is a Clinical Psychologist
and PhD student, University of Leicester
Panos Vostanis is Professor of Child and Adolescent
Psychiatry, University of Leicester
Legal notes: England and Wales
Deborah Cullen
Legal notes: Scotland
Alexandra Plumtree
Legal notes: Northern Ireland
Kerry O’Halloran
Health notes: Attachment Theory as a support for foster
carers and adoptive parents
Kim Golding
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