Study sheds light on adoption trends

Study sheds light on adoption trends

Thursday, October 31, 2013

International adoption is moving from a robust but largely unmonitored process towards a smaller but better regulated system.

The study included surveys of 1,500 adoptive parents and adoption professionals in sending and receiving countries, as well as interviews with senior policymakers in 19 nations including Ireland. It found that the international implementation of the Hague Convention has resulted in an increase in legal, safe, and appropriate adoptions for children for whom no permanent options exist to be raised in families.

The study found:

* More children are remaining institutionalised for longer periods, increasing the effects of institutionalisation;

* An increasing awareness and engagement in international open adoption where some form of contact remains between the natural and adoptive families:

* Many countries of origin, including the largest ones such as China, are increasingly allowing the inter-country adoption primarily or exclusively of children with special needs.

Adam Pertman, the president of the Donaldson Adoption Institute, said the policies of countries involved in adoption need to reflect current rather than past trends.

The unfortunate reality is that too many current policies and practices do not adequately address the fast-changing realities of international adoption.

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Study sheds light on adoption trends