BAAF
British Association for Adoption & Fostering
Publications

Home
> About BAAF
> Your country or region
> Join BAAF
> Members' area
> Media
> Campaigns
> Contact BAAF

Fostering & adoption
> First questions
> Legislation & practice
> Statistics
> Financial information

Resources
> Publications
> Journal
> Training & conferences
> Advice & consultancy
> Consultations
> Find an agency
> Links

You can help
> Donate
> Fundraising

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

Book reviews

Abstracts

Diary


go to top

Adoption & Fostering

Also see:
> Legislation, policy & practice
> Members’ area
> Join BAAF

Publications:
 
Copyright BAAF and its suppliers © 1999 - 2008.
British Association for Adoption and Fostering is a registered charity no. 275689 (England and Wales) and SC039337 (Scotland)
Registered as a company limited by guarantee in England and Wales no. 01379092. VAT no. 235 3764 58
Registered office at Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS (map)
Tel 020 7421 2600 | email mail@baaf.org.uk
Privacy policy | Security policy | Complaints procedures | webmaster@baaf.org.uk | This website and other BAAF websites
BAAF is not responsible for the contents of external websites.