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An exploration of adopters' views regarding children's ages at the time of placement
Author(s) -
Brind Katharine
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
child and family social work
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.912
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1365-2206
pISSN - 1356-7500
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2206.2008.00556.x
Subject(s) - early adopter , context (archaeology) , perspective (graphical) , psychology , subject (documents) , developmental psychology , social psychology , medical education , medicine , marketing , business , computer science , artificial intelligence , library science , paleontology , biology
This paper describes a project undertaken as part of a masters degree at Kingston University that looked at factors which influence adopters' decisions about the ages of children that they want to adopt. This subject is topical because currently many adoptive parents want to adopt very young children, but many of the children waiting for placements are older. Relevant literature is reviewed to place the project in context and to provide a theoretical perspective on adopters' decision‐making on the preferred ages of children at the time of placement. The views of adopters and adoption social workers were sought using questionnaires and semi‐structured interviews. The majority of adopters who responded wanted to adopt children who were as young as possible. Adoption social workers who responded reported difficulties finding placements for older children. Data obtained suggests that the strategies designed to encourage adopters to consider adopting older children may have limited effect. In the conclusion, tentative suggestions are made about the implications of this project for adoption practice.