Alan Rushton
Biographic Data
| ID | 6246498 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Alan Rushton |
| GIVEN NAMES | Alan |
| FAMILY NAME | Rushton |
| SIGNATURE | RUSHTON A |
| AFFILIATIONS | King's College London |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 28 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 79 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 28 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1986 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2020 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Infant domestic adoption
BACKGROUND: Adoption studies can cast light on environmental influences on development, but heterogeneity in preplacement experiences often complicates interpretation of findings. METHODS: We studied infant-adopted samples drawn from the 1958 and 1970 British birth cohorts and examined mental health, well-being, physical health and externalizing outcomes at mid-life. Outcomes for adopted cohort members were compared with those of (a) individuals …
Infant domestic adoptions followed up to adulthood
Studies of adult outcomes of infant domestic adoptions are considered: the range of psychological and behavioural outcomes recorded, the current state of knowledge summarised and the importance of the chosen comparison groups discussed. The social context of infant adoptions is described. Findings from our follow-ups of British infant adoptions in the post-World War 11 period are then briefly reported and set alongside the previous studies. In th…
Further analysis of the British Chinese Adoption Study (BCAS)
This paper seeks to contribute to debates about how people's adult lives unfold after experiencing childhood adversity. It presents analysis from the British Chinese Adoption Study: a mixed methods follow-up study of women, now aged in their 40s and early 50s, who spent their infant lives in Hong Kong orphanages and were then adopted by families in the UK in the 1960s. Sixty-eight women participated via questionnaires and face-to-face interviews.…
Early years adversity, adoption and adulthood
This article discusses the methodological and conceptual issues surrounding a long-term follow-up study of girls adopted from orphanages in China around the age of two years. The aim of the study was to see if any effects of early negative experiences affected the women some 45 years later. Seventy-two out of the original 100 women were assessed by means of interviews and questionnaires that explored their health, behaviour, achievements, life sa…
Fourth International Conference on Adoption Research (Icar4), 7–11 July 2013, Bilbao, Spain
The British Chinese Adoption Study
Follow-up studies of adopted adults are very important in contributing to the development of policy and practice when placing children in families following early adversity. This article describes the development of a methodology for one such study due to be completed in 2012. The files of 100 ethnic Chinese girls adopted from Hong Kong into British families in the 1960s were made available and originally analysed in 2007. As the files recorded d…
Assessing Community Connectedness and Self-Regard in a Mid-Life Follow-up of British Chinese Adoptions
In the field of international adoption there has been a long-standing concern that transracially adopted people experience social dislocation from both their communities of origin and the communities in which they grew up. Alan Rushton, Margaret Grant, John Simmonds and Julia Feast of the British Chinese Adoption Study team explore this notion in relation to a sample of 72 ex-orphanage, Hong Kong-born women adopted into British families in the 19…
Thinking on Developmental Psychology in Fostering and Adoption
Alan Rushton discusses thinking over the last 30 years in developmental psychology as it affects fostering and adoption. He charts significant progress in six areas and assesses BAAF's contribution to various aspects of this accumulating knowledge
Access to post‐adoption services when the child has substantial problems
The aim of the study described here was to assess the types of additional specialist service available to adoptive parents participating in a randomised controlled trial (RCT) of post‐adoption support whose ex‐care children were showing substantial psychosocial problems. Parents from 37 families who volunteered for the RCT were asked about access to professional help with problems arising from the placement, additional to the tested support: ques…
Adopters' Experiences of Preparation to Parent Children with Serious Difficulties
A selected group of adopters coping with very troubled children recently placed from care was asked about their satisfactions and dissatisfactions with the preparation for parenting that had been provided. Although some aspects were well received, most thought that the preparation had not been helpful in developing the parenting skills for managing difficult behaviour. It was notable that the child's level of disturbance still came as a surprise …
Mental health and educational difficulties in children in contact with Children's Social Services
The British Child Mental Health Survey 1999 collected data from 10 438 children aged 5–15 years, selected at random from the child benefit register. At 2 and 3 years, all those with a psychiatric disorder and a random third without were followed up with further detailed interviews about the services contacted if parents reported service contact or if parents expressed concern about their child's mental health at baseline and follow‐up, but report…
Predictors of outcome for unrelated adoptive placements made during middle childhood
This paper reports on a follow‐up to adolescence of two longitudinal prospective studies of children placed from public care with non‐related adoptive families in the UK. Factors associated with outcome are presented for 99 children (one index child per adoptive family) who were between 5 and 11 years of age at placement. Information concerning the children's backgrounds and care histories was obtained shortly after placement (T1), from social wo…
Joining a New Family
Cherilyn Dance and Alan Rushton report on the views of a group of young people who had joined adoptive or foster families some six years previously when they were between five and 11 years old (the Maudsley Follow-Up Study). The report focuses on the experience of joining a new family, family relationships and feelings of belonging. It was striking that it could take some young people a considerable length of time to feel settled; however, by the…
The Outcomes of Late Permanent Placements
Using interview and questionnaire data based on a sample of 133 late-placed adoption and permanent foster care placements, Alan Rushton and Cherilyn Dance 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 which is largely consist…
Preferentially rejected children and their development in permanent family placements
Several studies of family placements have indicated poorer outcomes for children who are placed singly in new families. In an effort to understand why this may be so, this paper explores differential outcome among a group of children who were placed singly with adoptive or long‐term foster families during middle childhood. A small number of these children were ‘only children’ at the time of placement but most had siblings living elsewhere. Partic…
Preferential Rejection
Local Authority and Voluntary Adoption Agencies' Arrangements for Supporting Adoptive Families
This paper presents the main messages from a survey of adoption support services in local authority and voluntary adoption agencies throughout the UK. The survey examined developments in service provision and delivery resulting from the Government's drive to increase the use of adoption as an option to secure permanence for looked after children. Alan Rushton reports that substantial changes are taking place in many agencies, but that there is fu…
Service and client outcomes of cases reported under a joint vulnerable adults policy
This paper reports on a prospective study of 44 cases of alleged abuse of vulnerable adults referred under a joint vulnerable adults policy. The authors examine attitudes to policy, special training and joint working, re‐abuse, continuing risk and the outcome of legal proceedings. The implications of the findings are discussed and recommendations made
Findings from a UK Based Study of Late Permanent Placements
This prospective, UK based adoption study examined the first year of placement of 61 boys and girls who joined permanent unrelated families during middle childhood. Most of the children had experienced abuse, neglect and discontinuity in their lives prior to this placement. The psycho-social functioning of the children and the development of family relationships were assessed by means of in-depth interviews with the new parents. High levels of be…
Research Review
The publication of a new follow-up study of a transracial sample deserves special attention because the volume of longitudinal research in this field is fairly small. Alan Rushton and Helen Minnis provide a critical review of a recent North American paper by Brooks and Barth, and consider the quality of the evidence presented, the methodological limitations, what can be safely concluded from the study and the implications that can be drawn for pr…
Measuring outcomes for children late placed for adoption
Selecting appropriate measures to assess the outcomes of permanent placement across a broad range of developmental dimensions is problematic. The Maudsley team are adapting and developing a package of instruments designed to identify the key influences on developmental recovery for a longitudinal sample of children late placed for adoption.
Measuring outcomes for children late placed for adoption
Selecting appropriate measures to assess the outcomes of permanent placement across a broad range of developmental dimensions is problematic. The Maudsley team are adapting and developing a package of instruments designed to identify the key influences on developmental recovery for a longitudinal sample of children late placed for adoption
Research review
Preparation for Permanent Placement Evaluating Direct Work with Older Children
Principles and Practice in the Permanent Placement of Older Children
This questionnaire and interview‐based survey of a sample of principal adoption and fostering officers in English social services departments was designed to explore current viewpoints about policy implementation and practice in the permanent family placement of older children. Variations and commonalities of opinion are described in relation to topics such as recruitment policy, contact with birth parents, race matching and post adoption support…
The Outcomes of Late Permanent Placements
Using interview and questionnaire data based on a sample of 133 late-placed adoption and permanent foster care placements, Alan Rushton and Cherilyn Dance 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 which is largely consist…
Preparation for Permanent Placement Evaluating Direct Work with Older Children
Adopters' Experiences of Preparation to Parent Children with Serious Difficulties
A selected group of adopters coping with very troubled children recently placed from care was asked about their satisfactions and dissatisfactions with the preparation for parenting that had been provided. Although some aspects were well received, most thought that the preparation had not been helpful in developing the parenting skills for managing difficult behaviour. It was notable that the child's level of disturbance still came as a surprise …
Joining a New Family
Cherilyn Dance and Alan Rushton report on the views of a group of young people who had joined adoptive or foster families some six years previously when they were between five and 11 years old (the Maudsley Follow-Up Study). The report focuses on the experience of joining a new family, family relationships and feelings of belonging. It was striking that it could take some young people a considerable length of time to feel settled; however, by the…
Findings from a UK Based Study of Late Permanent Placements
This prospective, UK based adoption study examined the first year of placement of 61 boys and girls who joined permanent unrelated families during middle childhood. Most of the children had experienced abuse, neglect and discontinuity in their lives prior to this placement. The psycho-social functioning of the children and the development of family relationships were assessed by means of in-depth interviews with the new parents. High levels of be…
Predictors of outcome for unrelated adoptive placements made during middle childhood
This paper reports on a follow‐up to adolescence of two longitudinal prospective studies of children placed from public care with non‐related adoptive families in the UK. Factors associated with outcome are presented for 99 children (one index child per adoptive family) who were between 5 and 11 years of age at placement. Information concerning the children's backgrounds and care histories was obtained shortly after placement (T1), from social wo…
Research Review
The publication of a new follow-up study of a transracial sample deserves special attention because the volume of longitudinal research in this field is fairly small. Alan Rushton and Helen Minnis provide a critical review of a recent North American paper by Brooks and Barth, and consider the quality of the evidence presented, the methodological limitations, what can be safely concluded from the study and the implications that can be drawn for pr…
Assessing Community Connectedness and Self-Regard in a Mid-Life Follow-up of British Chinese Adoptions
In the field of international adoption there has been a long-standing concern that transracially adopted people experience social dislocation from both their communities of origin and the communities in which they grew up. Alan Rushton, Margaret Grant, John Simmonds and Julia Feast of the British Chinese Adoption Study team explore this notion in relation to a sample of 72 ex-orphanage, Hong Kong-born women adopted into British families in the 19…
Mental health and educational difficulties in children in contact with Children's Social Services
The British Child Mental Health Survey 1999 collected data from 10 438 children aged 5–15 years, selected at random from the child benefit register. At 2 and 3 years, all those with a psychiatric disorder and a random third without were followed up with further detailed interviews about the services contacted if parents reported service contact or if parents expressed concern about their child's mental health at baseline and follow‐up, but report…
Preferential Rejection
Thinking on Developmental Psychology in Fostering and Adoption
Alan Rushton discusses thinking over the last 30 years in developmental psychology as it affects fostering and adoption. He charts significant progress in six areas and assesses BAAF's contribution to various aspects of this accumulating knowledge
Access to post‐adoption services when the child has substantial problems
The aim of the study described here was to assess the types of additional specialist service available to adoptive parents participating in a randomised controlled trial (RCT) of post‐adoption support whose ex‐care children were showing substantial psychosocial problems. Parents from 37 families who volunteered for the RCT were asked about access to professional help with problems arising from the placement, additional to the tested support: ques…
Preferentially rejected children and their development in permanent family placements
Several studies of family placements have indicated poorer outcomes for children who are placed singly in new families. In an effort to understand why this may be so, this paper explores differential outcome among a group of children who were placed singly with adoptive or long‐term foster families during middle childhood. A small number of these children were ‘only children’ at the time of placement but most had siblings living elsewhere. Partic…
New Parents for Older Children
Early years adversity, adoption and adulthood
This article discusses the methodological and conceptual issues surrounding a long-term follow-up study of girls adopted from orphanages in China around the age of two years. The aim of the study was to see if any effects of early negative experiences affected the women some 45 years later. Seventy-two out of the original 100 women were assessed by means of interviews and questionnaires that explored their health, behaviour, achievements, life sa…
The British Chinese Adoption Study
Follow-up studies of adopted adults are very important in contributing to the development of policy and practice when placing children in families following early adversity. This article describes the development of a methodology for one such study due to be completed in 2012. The files of 100 ethnic Chinese girls adopted from Hong Kong into British families in the 1960s were made available and originally analysed in 2007. As the files recorded d…
Local Authority and Voluntary Adoption Agencies' Arrangements for Supporting Adoptive Families
This paper presents the main messages from a survey of adoption support services in local authority and voluntary adoption agencies throughout the UK. The survey examined developments in service provision and delivery resulting from the Government's drive to increase the use of adoption as an option to secure permanence for looked after children. Alan Rushton reports that substantial changes are taking place in many agencies, but that there is fu…
Service and client outcomes of cases reported under a joint vulnerable adults policy
This paper reports on a prospective study of 44 cases of alleged abuse of vulnerable adults referred under a joint vulnerable adults policy. The authors examine attitudes to policy, special training and joint working, re‐abuse, continuing risk and the outcome of legal proceedings. The implications of the findings are discussed and recommendations made
Developmental Recovery
Sibling Groups in Permanent Placements
New Parents for Older Children
Principles and Practice in the Permanent Placement of Older Children
This questionnaire and interview‐based survey of a sample of principal adoption and fostering officers in English social services departments was designed to explore current viewpoints about policy implementation and practice in the permanent family placement of older children. Variations and commonalities of opinion are described in relation to topics such as recruitment policy, contact with birth parents, race matching and post adoption support…
Research review
Preparation for Permanent Placement Evaluating Direct Work with Older Children
Measuring outcomes for children late placed for adoption
Selecting appropriate measures to assess the outcomes of permanent placement across a broad range of developmental dimensions is problematic. The Maudsley team are adapting and developing a package of instruments designed to identify the key influences on developmental recovery for a longitudinal sample of children late placed for adoption.
Measuring outcomes for children late placed for adoption
Selecting appropriate measures to assess the outcomes of permanent placement across a broad range of developmental dimensions is problematic. The Maudsley team are adapting and developing a package of instruments designed to identify the key influences on developmental recovery for a longitudinal sample of children late placed for adoption
Service and client outcomes of cases reported under a joint vulnerable adults policy
This paper reports on a prospective study of 44 cases of alleged abuse of vulnerable adults referred under a joint vulnerable adults policy. The authors examine attitudes to policy, special training and joint working, re‐abuse, continuing risk and the outcome of legal proceedings. The implications of the findings are discussed and recommendations made
Findings from a UK Based Study of Late Permanent Placements
This prospective, UK based adoption study examined the first year of placement of 61 boys and girls who joined permanent unrelated families during middle childhood. Most of the children had experienced abuse, neglect and discontinuity in their lives prior to this placement. The psycho-social functioning of the children and the development of family relationships were assessed by means of in-depth interviews with the new parents. High levels of be…
Research Review
The publication of a new follow-up study of a transracial sample deserves special attention because the volume of longitudinal research in this field is fairly small. Alan Rushton and Helen Minnis provide a critical review of a recent North American paper by Brooks and Barth, and consider the quality of the evidence presented, the methodological limitations, what can be safely concluded from the study and the implications that can be drawn for pr…
Preferentially rejected children and their development in permanent family placements
Several studies of family placements have indicated poorer outcomes for children who are placed singly in new families. In an effort to understand why this may be so, this paper explores differential outcome among a group of children who were placed singly with adoptive or long‐term foster families during middle childhood. A small number of these children were ‘only children’ at the time of placement but most had siblings living elsewhere. Partic…
Preferential Rejection
Local Authority and Voluntary Adoption Agencies' Arrangements for Supporting Adoptive Families
This paper presents the main messages from a survey of adoption support services in local authority and voluntary adoption agencies throughout the UK. The survey examined developments in service provision and delivery resulting from the Government's drive to increase the use of adoption as an option to secure permanence for looked after children. Alan Rushton reports that substantial changes are taking place in many agencies, but that there is fu…
The Outcomes of Late Permanent Placements
Using interview and questionnaire data based on a sample of 133 late-placed adoption and permanent foster care placements, Alan Rushton and Cherilyn Dance 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 which is largely consist…
Predictors of outcome for unrelated adoptive placements made during middle childhood
This paper reports on a follow‐up to adolescence of two longitudinal prospective studies of children placed from public care with non‐related adoptive families in the UK. Factors associated with outcome are presented for 99 children (one index child per adoptive family) who were between 5 and 11 years of age at placement. Information concerning the children's backgrounds and care histories was obtained shortly after placement (T1), from social wo…
Joining a New Family
Cherilyn Dance and Alan Rushton report on the views of a group of young people who had joined adoptive or foster families some six years previously when they were between five and 11 years old (the Maudsley Follow-Up Study). The report focuses on the experience of joining a new family, family relationships and feelings of belonging. It was striking that it could take some young people a considerable length of time to feel settled; however, by the…
Mental health and educational difficulties in children in contact with Children's Social Services
The British Child Mental Health Survey 1999 collected data from 10 438 children aged 5–15 years, selected at random from the child benefit register. At 2 and 3 years, all those with a psychiatric disorder and a random third without were followed up with further detailed interviews about the services contacted if parents reported service contact or if parents expressed concern about their child's mental health at baseline and follow‐up, but report…
Access to post‐adoption services when the child has substantial problems
The aim of the study described here was to assess the types of additional specialist service available to adoptive parents participating in a randomised controlled trial (RCT) of post‐adoption support whose ex‐care children were showing substantial psychosocial problems. Parents from 37 families who volunteered for the RCT were asked about access to professional help with problems arising from the placement, additional to the tested support: ques…
Adopters' Experiences of Preparation to Parent Children with Serious Difficulties
A selected group of adopters coping with very troubled children recently placed from care was asked about their satisfactions and dissatisfactions with the preparation for parenting that had been provided. Although some aspects were well received, most thought that the preparation had not been helpful in developing the parenting skills for managing difficult behaviour. It was notable that the child's level of disturbance still came as a surprise …
Thinking on Developmental Psychology in Fostering and Adoption
Alan Rushton discusses thinking over the last 30 years in developmental psychology as it affects fostering and adoption. He charts significant progress in six areas and assesses BAAF's contribution to various aspects of this accumulating knowledge
The British Chinese Adoption Study
Follow-up studies of adopted adults are very important in contributing to the development of policy and practice when placing children in families following early adversity. This article describes the development of a methodology for one such study due to be completed in 2012. The files of 100 ethnic Chinese girls adopted from Hong Kong into British families in the 1960s were made available and originally analysed in 2007. As the files recorded d…
Assessing Community Connectedness and Self-Regard in a Mid-Life Follow-up of British Chinese Adoptions
In the field of international adoption there has been a long-standing concern that transracially adopted people experience social dislocation from both their communities of origin and the communities in which they grew up. Alan Rushton, Margaret Grant, John Simmonds and Julia Feast of the British Chinese Adoption Study team explore this notion in relation to a sample of 72 ex-orphanage, Hong Kong-born women adopted into British families in the 19…
Fourth International Conference on Adoption Research (Icar4), 7–11 July 2013, Bilbao, Spain
Early years adversity, adoption and adulthood
This article discusses the methodological and conceptual issues surrounding a long-term follow-up study of girls adopted from orphanages in China around the age of two years. The aim of the study was to see if any effects of early negative experiences affected the women some 45 years later. Seventy-two out of the original 100 women were assessed by means of interviews and questionnaires that explored their health, behaviour, achievements, life sa…
Psychology (26 works) · Child Welfare and Adoption (22 works) · Developmental psychology (15 works) · Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving (11 works) · Medicine (11 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Psychiatry (8 works) · Family and Disability Support Research (7 works) · Family Dynamics and Relationships (7 works) · Political science (7 works)