| Redefining family relationships following adoption: adoptive parents’ perspectives on the changing nature of kinship between adoptees and birth relatives. |
| Summary: Draws on data from a series of biographical interviews with 22 parents and adopted children within the UK over a 24 year period, in order to explore post adoption family relationships from the perspective of adoptive parents. Discusses findings in relation to maintaining family ties between adoptees and their birth relatives, sources of fragility within family relationships following adoption, and supporting direct and mediated contact. Concludes that this study highlights the complexities involved in the reshaping of family relationships between adoptees and birth relatives following adoption and points towards a need for more proactive facilitation of post-adoption relationships by adoption support professionals. Recommends that where possible, formal contact arrangements should build on existing family practices if they are to be meaningful to those facing the challenge of ‘redrawing the boundaries of kinship’. |
| Publication details: British Journal of Social Work Volume 42 Issue 2, 2012 pp 283-299 |
| Authors: Jones, Christine, and Hackett, Simon |
