Ball, Robyn (2005) Open adoption in Victoria, Australia: adoptive parents' reports of children's experience of birth family contact in relation to child wellbeing. Other Degree thesis, Victoria University.

Abstract

Open adoption, in which adopted children may have contact with their birth family, is a relatively new phenomenon in the adoption field. It was introduced in Victoria, Australia, in 1984, and no Australian research as to its nature and effectiveness has been published to date. The experience of 60 children, aged 8-16 years, who were adopted in Victoria as healthy infants, was investigated in the present study through reports of their adoptive parents, and compared with those pertaining to 31 nonadopted children. Using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, the study aimed to document patterns of post-placement contact occurring between children and their birth families, determine the relative level of wellbeing of adopted children in open adoption by comparing parent reports of adopted and nonadopted children, determine whether reports of children's wellbeing differed according to their pattern of contact, and explore children's reported experience of open adoption.

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