More Than Just a Letter
Service User Perspectives on One Local Authority's Adoption postbox service
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11940359 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Julie Selwyn (0000-0003-2336-5873, University of Bristol, corresponding author), Lesley Frazer (Hadley Centre for Adoption and Foster Care Studies), Peter Wrighton (Hadley Centre for Adoption and Foster Care Studies) |
| Year | 2006 |
| Volume | 30 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 6-17 |
| Publication date | 2006-07-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Adoption & Fostering (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0308-5759 • E-ISSN: 1740-469X |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/030857590603000203 |
| OpenAlex | W2004205590 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 11 |
Postbox contact, in which an adoption agency mediates the exchange of letters between adoptive and birth families, now appears to be the most common contact plan for adopted children. Despite their prevalence, postbox services have received little attention from researchers and is not the subject of any national policy or practice guidance. This article by Julie Selwyn, Lesley Frazer and Peter Wrighton draws on a recent evaluation of one local authority's postbox service and in particular the perspectives of adopters, birth mothers and extended birth family members using it. The evaluation found that adopters and extended family members were often very committed to sustaining the service for the benefit of children. However, birth fathers were rarely involved and birth mothers had great difficulty in writing, although they valued receiving news of their children. There was considerable scope for disappointment when parties embarked on postbox with different expectations and could not directly communicate their motives and wishes. Overall, the paper concludes that postbox users require more support if this form of contact is to be sustained. It also calls for researchers, practitioners and policy makers to devote further attention to postbox and in particular its longer-term impact on children
Agency (philosophy · Business · Disappointment · Library science · Plan (archaeology · Political science · Public relations · Scope (computer science · Service (business · Social science · Sociology · Subject (documents · Child Welfare and Adoption · Computer Science · History · Psychology · Social Psychology · Marketing
Post-Adoption Contact and Openness in Adoptive Parents' Minds
“Some days it’s like she has died.” A qualitative exploration of first mothers’ utilisation of artefacts associated with now-adopted children in coping with grief and loss
Something to just be ticked off on a care plan’
More Adoptions, More Quickly’
Birth Sibling Relationships after Adoption
Parenting breakdown
Qualitative Data Analysis
The Psychology Of Adoption
Costs and Outcomes of Non‐Infant Adoptions
Adoption Information Exchange
Nottinghamshire's Letterbox Contact Service
Exchanging Information Post Adoption
Contact after Adoption
Adoption in an Era of family preservation
The role of open adoption in the adjustment of adopted children and their families
| Citations per year | 0.28 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2008 - 2022 (15) |
| Highly cited | No |