Adoption Quarterly
Journal Data
| Type | JOURNAL |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Informa (GB) |
| ISSN | 1092-6755 / 1544-452X |
| Scopus | 4700152718 |
| Wikidata | Q15751793 |
| OpenAlex | S1125502 |
| MAG | 1125502 |
| Website | https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/wado20/current |
| Total publications | 551 |
| Coverage period | 1997 - 2026 |
| Country | US |
| Language | EN |
| Indexing | Scopus indexed |
| Cited by | 2.039 |
| Impact factor | 1.073 |
| SJR | 0.286 (Q2) |
| SNIP | 0.966 |
| CiteScore | 1.5 |
| h-index | 18 |
| i10-index | 65 |
| 2-year mean citedness | 0.087 |
| Overton policy citations | 1 |
| Female authorship share | 77.0% |
This journal focuses on adoption, a topic with significant social and cultural dimensions. It regularly intersects with fields like sociology and social work, making it a cognate social-science venue with regular anthropological relevance
Demography · Law · Sociology and Political Science · Assisted Reproductive Technology and Twin Pregnancy · Attachment and Relationship Dynamics · Child Abuse and Trauma · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development · Child Development and Digital Technology · Child Welfare and Adoption · Children's Rights and Participation
Adoptee Testimonials of Suffering—Transnational Adoptees and the Issue of Suicidality in Swedish Media Texts, 1988–2025
For well over two decades, quantitative research has repeatedly found that suicide attempts and suicides are up to four times more common among transnational adoptees compared to the general population in Sweden. Even so, the Swedish healthcare sector and society at large have failed to address the vulnerable situation of the more than 60,000 foreign-born adoptees in the country. This qualitative study is the first of its kind and draws on accoun…
Foreign-Resident Adoptive Parents in Japan
Adoption in Japan remains rare and complex, particularly for foreign-resident adoptive families navigating legal ambiguity and social norms surrounding blood lineage. This qualitative study explores the experiences of foreign-resident couples residing in Japan who have adopted Japanese children. Using narrative inquiry informed by the Family Stress Model, the study draws on interviews to examine how families interpret and respond to adoption-rela…
The Ethical, Legal and Psychosocial Implications of Genetic Testing in Adoption
Genetic testing helps determine the risk an individual faces in developing genetic diseases. Understanding the risk can allow measures to be put in place to increase preparation for the potential onset of certain diseases. Adoptees and adopters are often provided with limited information on the mental and physical health of birth parents. Therefore, some individuals argue that genetic testing could provide adoptive parents with further informatio…
Adjusting to becoming parents by adoption
Understanding Child Adoption Disruption in Zimbabwe
Pronatalism in Adoption Seeking
In a pronatalist society such as the US, motherhood is often framed as the expected next step in a series of normative milestones after marriage and financial stability. Adoption is one of the areas where evidence of pronatalism can be observed because the desires and decision-making around becoming a parent, which are generally private in biological reproduction, are more explicit and visible. By analyzing the demographics of adoption-seeking wo…
The Relationships between Parental Locus of Control and Domestically Adopted Children’s Emotional and Behavioral Adjustment
Considering their experiences, adoptees may encounter more difficulties than their non-adopted peers, with post-adoption adjustment varying considerably depending on their age at adoption. This study uniquely examined parental locus of control (PLC) in parents of 224 domestically adopted children, its associations with children’s emotional and behavioral adjustment, and whether age-at-adoption moderated these relationships. Multiple regressions i…
Transracial Korean Adoptee, Korean American, and South Korean Adolescent Conceptions of Family and Coming of Age in the Family Context
This study examined the unfolding of family and adulthood across differing Korean family contexts. Semi-structured interviews were conducted on 27 Korean adolescents: 8 Korean Americans (KAs), 9 Transracially Adopted Korean Americans (KADs), and 10 South Koreans (SKs). KADs emphasized the importance of their family’s shared journey in shaping their cultural identities. Alternatively, KAs and SKs more likely reported parental demandingness and pat…
Perceived Inequality Between Biological and Adopted Siblings and Behavioral Problems Among Adopted Children
This study examined the relationships of perceived parental differential treatment (PPDT) with emotional insecurity (EI), aggressive tendencies (AT), and oppositional behaviors (OB) among 712 adopted children aged 10–17 years living with adoptive families in Lahore, Pakistan. Using self-report scales, data were analyzed through structural equation modeling (SEM). Results indicated that PPDT had significant direct associations with EI, AT, and OB,…
Introduction to the Special Double Issue
The special double issue (Volume 29, Issues 1& 2) is comprised of 13 empirical studies presented at the 8th International Conference on Adoption Research (ICAR8), held at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, USA in July 2024. Collectively, these articles advance empirical knowledge relevant to adoption researchers, practitioners, educators, and policymakers by addressing key issues in contemporary adoption practice, including post-adoption…
Mapping Scholarly Connections
Transnational adoption, also known as intercountry or international adoption, occurs when individuals adopt a child from a country different from their own. In the United States, transnational adoptions account for approximately 40% of all adoptions. Cultural narratives such as the model minority myth have shaped perceptions of Asian adoptees as more assimilable, intelligent, and hardworking than other racial minority groups, contributing to thei…
Dialogue Between Generations of Adoptees
Adoptees from different generations grew up in different social contexts, in different times. Some experienced silence about their adoption, others experienced a certain openness. This research project explored the experiences of adoptees of different generations through art and discussion groups.Methods This approach is based on the Photovoice collaborative action research method. It allows the participants to express their experiences to raise …
Feelings Toward Adoption and Well-Being Among Adolescent Adoptees
This study explores how adolescents internalize their adoptive identity and its impact on well-being. It examines feelings about adoption among 541 adoptees aged 11–18 from the 2018 Health Behavior in School-aged Children (HBSC) Study in Spain. Findings show that younger adolescents (11–12) tend to express positive feelings, while older adolescents (13+) develop more complex, ambivalent perspectives. Three emotional profiles emerged: predominantl…
Birth Mothers Who Place Children in Private Domestic Adoptions in the United States
Private domestic adoption in the United States has experienced significant demographic and procedural shifts over recent decades. This study presents a contemporary profile of birth mothers who place children for adoption, drawing on de-identified data from adoption agencies, encompassing 2,365 cases between 2014 and 2023. Birth mothers were on average 25.8 years old and composed a racially diverse group, and nearly half were already parenting at…
The Ties That Remain
This paper addresses how the quality of adoptive family relationships, adoption communication in the adoptive family, adopted adults’ sense of family belonging, and adoptive parental identity can change following birth family contact in international adoption. The results presented are based on individual and family interviews conducted with 22 internationally adopted adults and adoptive parents from Quebec, Canada. The findings highlight that bi…
We’re the Same All the Way Around”
Parenting Adopted Children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (Fasd)
Exploring Transracial Adoptees’ Experiences of Developing Adoption Consciousness
Volunteer Single Fathering
Adopted adults’ Motivation, Decision Making, and Experience of Searching for Birth Family
Caring for Traumatized Children
The Role of Peer-Based Support Groups in Addressing Support Needs Amongst Adult Adoptees
A Systematic Review on the Impact of Asfa on the Outcomes of Children and Birth Families Involved in the Foster Care System
Beyond Records
I Finally Figured Out What It Means to Feel Safe”
Family Structural Openness and Communication Openness as Predictors in the Adjustmentof Adopted Children
The current study examined the relative contribution of family structural openness versus communication openness in the adjustment of adopted children. Seventy-three adopted children, placed predominately in inracial families within 18 months of their birth, were the focus of the study. Parental ratings of family structural openness and children's ratings of communication openness served as the primary predictor variables and children's ratings o…
Do You Know Your Real Parents?” and Other Adoption Microaggressions
Myths, fairy tales, films, books, and everyday communication contain images and stories of orphans and adoptees that convey societal discomfort and judgment about adoption (i.e., adoption stigma). In this article, I apply the microaggression model to adoption-related experiences using the literature and theory on adoption stigma. Definitions for adoption-related microaggressions (microassaults, microinvalidations, and microinsults) and a fourth t…
Coming to Terms with Adoption
This article focuses on the development of personal identity of adopted individuals from adolescence into adulthood. For adopted persons, identity development involves exploration of alternative futures as well as coming to terms with the facts of one's adoption. Integration of adoption into one's overall sense of identity is discussed, as is evidence about adopted persons' construction of identity from the perspective of first-person accounts, r…
Cultural Socialization Practices in Domestic and International Transracial Adoption
This study explored cultural socialization practices, their relationship to demographic-, child-, and adoption-related factors, and parents’ perceptions of closeness and satisfaction with adoption among international and domestic transracially adopted children. Data from the National Survey of Adoptive Parents indicated that parents rely on socialization practices that require little to no integration with people of the children's race/ethnicity.…
The Family Adoption Communication (FAC) Model
Presented is a theoretical model explaining how family communication about adoption evolves over time. Based on data from a national longitudinal study of the effects of openness in adoption (Grotevant & McRoy, 1998), the Family Adoption Communication (FAC) model describes the dynamic processes inherent in adoption-related communication and uses a contextual perspective that considers the developmental needs of children to explain the discrepanci…
Exploring Motivations to Adopt
This study used National Survey of Adoptive Parents (NSAP) data to explore adoptive parent motivations. Examination of adoption motivation is important as it relates to recruitment of adoptive families for children needing homes. Findings show that families using the three main types of adoption—foster care, private domestic, and international—have somewhat similar motivations for adopting. Infertile couples are found within each adoption type an…
Comparing the Ethnic Identity and Well-Being of Adopted Korean Americans With Immigrant/U.S.-Born Korean Americans and Korean International Students
This study compared the ethnic identity and well-being of Korean Americans who were adopted internationally with immigrant/U.S.-born Korean Americans and Korean international students, as well as the relationship between ethnic identity and well-being for each group. One-hundred and seven college students completed measures of ethnic identity and subjective well-being. Immigrant/U.S.-born Korean Americans had higher ethnic identity scores than th…
Where Are We Now
Little research on adoption disruption has been conducted in recent years, particularly with large populations and multivariate methods. Utilizing administrative data on 15,947 children, this study examines adoption disruption in a large state child welfare system in the United States in the three years leading up to and the three years following the passage of ASFA (Adoption and Safe Families Act), a federal law that mandates speedier movement t…
Cultural Identity and Place in Adult Korean-American Intercountry Adoptees
This study explores the interrelationship between cultural identity and place in the lives of adult Korean adoptees living primarily in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota. Using life histories derived through multiple semi-structured interviews, a web of related themes emerged which reveal the interplay between ethnicity, identity, gender, and place. From childhood to adulthood, most Korean adoptees followed a similar developmental trajectory of d…
Infants in Foster Care
This article highlights the importance of attachment issues for infants placed in foster care. We offer a framework for understanding how early separation and maltreatment may affect infants' ability to securely rely on a foster parent. We argue that disruptions in foster infants' primary attachment relationships, combined with a history of maltreatment, place these infants at risk for developing predominantly insecure or disorganized attachments…
Choices, Challenges, and Tensions
No research has examined the challenges faced by lesbian women seeking to adopt from the perspective of lesbian couples themselves. The current qualitative study utilized data from 70 women (from 35 same-sex couples) who were in the process of adopting to explore how lesbian women experience and navigate the challenges they encounter during this critical life transition. Ecological, minority stress, and feminist perspectives informed our analysis…
Coming to Terms with the Loss of a Child
This paper explores the impact of adoption on birth parents and grandparents. Six years post-adoption, interviews were carried out with 72 birth parents or grandparents of a child adopted under the age of four. The sample included child welfare and voluntary adoptions. Qualitative analysis of data focused on the different ways these birth relatives did or did not accept the child's placement for adoption, and three patterns emerged-positive accep…
The Experiences of Gay Men and Lesbians in Becoming and Being Adoptive Parents
The purpose of this study was to explore the adoption and parenting experiences of lesbian and gay (LG) adoptive parents. Data for the present study are from a larger national cross-sectional survey of LG adoptive parents. Participants were recruited through advertisements placed in metropolitan LG newspapers, Web sites, and organizations across the country that serve LG individuals. This paper presents an analysis of the qualitative data gathere…
Adopted Persons' Search for and Contact with Their Birth Parents I
This article presents a critical review of different lines of empirical research on adopted persons' search for their birth parents and identifies questions and issues that are in need of further study. The review covers research on the demographic and psychological characteristics of searchers and their motives for searching. Research findings are also used to evaluate the validity of three different theoretical frameworks that have been offered…
Why Adoption? Gay, Lesbian, and Heterosexual Adoptive Parents’ Reproductive Experiences and Reasons for Adoption
This study aimed to explore the experiences of gay, lesbian, and heterosexual adoptive parents from 130 families. Parents’ reproductive experiences prior to adoption and their reasons for choosing to adopt were compared. Heterosexual couples were more likely to have experienced infertility than same-sex couples. Same-sex couples were more likely to prefer adoption over other routes to parenthood. Parents in all three family types selected their r…
Communicative Openness Within Adoptive Families
Policy and practice relating to openness in adoption have changed substantially in the last 30 years. There is a growing body of empirical research that supports both structural and communicative openness, and there is widespread consensus that communicative openness is desirable within adoptive families. Despite this, there is evidence that some adoptive parents and their adopted children struggle to achieve the level of communicative openness t…
The Past and Present Cultural Experiences of Adopted Korean American Adults
This study used a mixed-method approach to examine the past and present cultural life experiences of Korean adult adoptees. Open-ended responses across four developmental periods (childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, and adulthood) were qualitatively analyzed and categorized into seven categories of cultural activities. We then quantitatively investigated the relationship between these domains and ethnic identity. Ethnic identity was positive…
If I Give You My Child, Aren't We Family
While poverty is suspected to be the major reason for birth families relinquishing their children for international adoptions, little is known of the impact of the interplay among the economic, familial, and cultural aspects of a particular sending country which culminates in the adoption decision. In this study, the authors studied 73 birthmothers in the Republic of Marshall Islands, a small Western Pacific island nation with a total population …
Many Faces of Openness in Adoption
Parents and adolescents (mean age, 15.7 years) from 177 adoptive families participating in the second wave of the Minnesota/Texas Adoption Research Project were interviewed about their post-adoption contact arrangements. The sample included families with no contact, stopped contact, contact without meetings, and contact with face-to-face meetings between the adolescent and birth mother. Openness arrangements were dynamic, and different openness a…
Who Seeks to Adopt a Child
Data from Cycle 5 of the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) (1995) were analyzed to identify factors that could predict whether a woman 18-44 years of age would ever have sought to adopt a child. Of the 10,019 women in the specified age group overall, 508 (5.1 percent) had ever sought to adopt, including 5.4 percent of white women and 5.2 percent of black women. Multiple logistic regression analyses were conducted for all women and for white…
Searching for the Self
In this case study, five international adoptees from Finland were interviewed about their search and reunion experiences to find out what meanings they ascribed to their identities and family relations. The thematic analysis yielded three themes: search and reunion in significant periods of life, meaning of reunion for identity, and belonging and relatedness within family. The first theme was characterized by the changing interest in birth family…
The Well-Being of U.S. Children Adopted From Foster Care, Privately From the United States and Internationally
This article examines differences in the well-being of American children adopted from foster care, from other domestic sources, and from international sources using the National Survey of Adoptive Parents with data merged from the 2007 National Survey of Children's Health. The authors explore the independent associations of child, parent, and family factors such as age of adoptive placement, transracial placement, socioeconomic status, and family…
Educational Achievement in Adopted Children from China
A sample of 77 adopted children from China and a matched sample of 77 Norwegian-born children were tested for educational achievement. The results did not show any significant differences between the two groups either in educational performance or in any other related areas. The findings are in contrast to other studies showing that international adoptees as a group have lower performance than non-adoptees. The study did show a greater disparity …
I Was Tooken”
Little is known of how children experience removal from parents and placement into foster care. This paper presents results of a qualitative study of the experiences of 90 inner-city children, ages 8-14 years. Children's narratives portray a progression of traumatizing events ensuing from the placement process. The narrative from a wellhandled placement suggests guidelines for future interventions. Developmental and practice implications are disc…
Psychiatric Disorders and Treatment in Adoptees
This meta-analysis integrates the results of 85 studies on psychiatric disorders and treatment in adoptees and non-adoptees. The risk of adoptees experiencing psychiatric disorders, contact with mental health services, or treatment in a psychiatric hospital was approximately twice as high as that of non-adoptees. Elevated risks were observed for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorders, anxiety disorders, conduct disorders/oppositional defiant d…
Adoption in the Media
This is a review of three articles that appeared in the popular print media in 1996. All cover the subject of teen pregnancy. Two are written by or about birth parents and their decision to plan adoption. The other article focuses on the life of two teenagers who will parent their children
Coming to Terms with Adoption
This article focuses on the development of personal identity of adopted individuals from adolescence into adulthood. For adopted persons, identity development involves exploration of alternative futures as well as coming to terms with the facts of one's adoption. Integration of adoption into one's overall sense of identity is discussed, as is evidence about adopted persons' construction of identity from the perspective of first-person accounts, r…
Research Digest
A Longitudinal Study of Family Structure and Size and Adoption Outcomes
Research on adoption can benefit from more analysis of the relationship between family structure and size and adoption outcomes. This manuscript reviews the findings of prior adoption outcome research related to family structure and size and considers findings from related studies of family size and structure. Data from a follow-up study of international and domestic adoptions suggest that families who adopt children and have birth children as we…
Grief Resolution of Birthmothers in Confidential, Time-Limited Mediated, Ongoing Mediated, and Fully Disclosed Adoptions
This study examines grief resolution issues for 75 birthmothers who placed infants for adoption four to twelve years ago in confidential, time-limited mediated, ongoing mediated, or fully disclosed adoptions. Interview data from sets of birthmothers and adoptive families were analyzed. Birthmothers in each of the four adoption arrangements exhibited the continuum of grief resolution, from “very poor” to nearly “very good” resolution. However, bir…
Unequal Treatment
This paper presents an analysis of New York State's implementation of the adoption subsidy program provided under the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act (P.L. 96-272) of 1980. This law established a mechanism through which federal matching funds could be appropriated to states for subsidies to support the adoption of special needs children. New York is one of four states in the nation in which adoption subsidy rates are set at the local (c…
Transracial Adoption
Making a “Real” Family
This paper discusses the policy of matching as it has influenced American adoption practice. The word “matching” is shorthand for a set of assumptions built around the principle that when a child is “like” her or his adoptive parents, the adoption will be successful. The policy involves establishing criteria for likeness; traits upon which likeness has been based include, explicitly, race, ethnicity, and religion, and, implicity, class. My articl…
Media Presentation of “Search,” “Reunion” and Open Records
This article reviews media coverage of the highly charged issues of search and reunion and open records; and looks at commentary on adoption from an advocate and an opponent
Changing Agency Practices Toward Openness in Adoption
The impact of openness in adoption on private adoption agencies' practices and services was examined. In 1987-89 and 1993 staff from private agencies participated in structured interviews concerning their current practices regarding openness and the services offered by the agency. Over time, agencies tended to offer a greater range of openness options. Agency personnel reported that client demand, changes in agency philosophy, and competition fro…
Successful Adoption of Children with Down Syndrome and Other Developmental Disabilities
Children with many types of developmental disabilities have been successfully adopted. Nonetheless, there appears to be a belief among both adopters and some adoption workers that children with Down syndrome are especially easy to rear. The current paper uses different methodological strategies, including case-by-case matching and regression techniques, to test hypotheses relating to better outcomes for parents and families who have adopted child…
The Development of Adoption Law
Adoption law in the United States, since its inception in 1851, has reflected changes in society and in child welfare practices. The author reviews its evolution from an issue involving property and inheritance, to a means of helping children and creating the ideal nuclear family, to the current understanding that virtually all children needing permanent homes are “adoptable” and that families can take many forms. She also recounts changes in the…
Searching for Birth Parents by Adult Adoptees
Adoption in the Media
This article reviews four print pieces from national magazines and newspapers. They cover the subjects of adoption of older children from foster care, importing pregnant women from foreign countries to facilitate American adoptions of their babies, the death of a child with reactive attachment disorder, and the adoption of Chinese girls in New York City
On Individual Difference, Choice, Selection, and Complexity in Adoption Research
The silent confounds of the Main Effects Model as used in adoption research are individual difference driven self-selection and choice along with intermediary and birthparent selections. Two Chain-of-Choices Models -one for adoptive parents and one for birthparents and adoptees -are presented as possible frameworks within which to consider the role of individual differences, choices, and selections in understanding both the process of adoption an…
Lesbian-Headed Households
Intercountry Adoption
In recent years, the practice of intercountry adoption is increasingly being debated within the context of human rights. Intercountry adoption raises many ethical and legal issues which are addressed in two international treaties: the Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1989, and the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption, adopted by the H…
Infants in Foster Care
This article highlights the importance of attachment issues for infants placed in foster care. We offer a framework for understanding how early separation and maltreatment may affect infants' ability to securely rely on a foster parent. We argue that disruptions in foster infants' primary attachment relationships, combined with a history of maltreatment, place these infants at risk for developing predominantly insecure or disorganized attachments…
Bad Judgments
Media Reviews
Ethical Adoption Practice
Dr. Paul Denhalter completed his doctoral candidacy research on adoptive family attachment and entitlement. Nineteen parents were interviewed about what elements of adoptive family life contributed to a sense of entitlement. The act of care giving increased entitlement; negative comments from others about adoption tended to decrease it. In his social work practice, Dr. Denhalter counseled adoptive and birth families and advocated education, couns…
Changes in Motivation for Adoption, Value Orientations and Behavior in Three Generations of Adoptive Parents
It is hypothesized that in this century a pattern of three generations of adoptive parents has developed: the traditional-closed generation, the open-idealistic, and the materialistic-realistic generation. These three generations differ considerably in motives and attitudes concerning adoption. Changes in the adoption field are connected with important changes in society. Adoption has lost its taboo character, domestic adoption is decreasing or h…
Adoption and Identity
Using Archival Datasets to Study Adoption-Related Questions
The Research Digest column describes the contents, availability and methods of accessing large datasets suitable for adoption research. With data collected by or funded by a variety of federal government agencies, the accessibility of these archival datasets enables researchers to pursue some of their investigative interests without all the problems related to data collection. Most of the data are relatively new, having become available to the pu…
I Was Tooken”
Little is known of how children experience removal from parents and placement into foster care. This paper presents results of a qualitative study of the experiences of 90 inner-city children, ages 8-14 years. Children's narratives portray a progression of traumatizing events ensuing from the placement process. The narrative from a wellhandled placement suggests guidelines for future interventions. Developmental and practice implications are disc…