Changing lives and changing minds: the experiences of adoptive parents from application to approval

Cherilyn Dance, Elaine Farmer

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The recruitment and preparation of adoptive parents is currently high on the government’s agenda with a number of far-reaching changes in policy, processes and guidance having been introduced in recent months. The fundamental aim of adoption from care remains as being the provision of, hopefully, stable and loving families for children whose parents cannot care for them but the experiences of adoptive parents in this process has recently moved from the wings to centre stage. This paper introduces the reflections of a group of adoptive parents (n=27) about their experience of becoming adopters. The impact of delays in the process and experiences of the preparation and assessment period are discussed. A particular focus of the paper is on adopters’ thoughts about the sorts of children they felt they could parent and how these changed in the course of their approval journey.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)101-114
Number of pages15
JournalAdoption and Fostering
Volume38
Issue number2
Publication statusPublished - 2014

Keywords

  • Adoptive parents' experiences
  • Assessment of adoptive parents
  • Approval of adoptive parents
  • adoption from care

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