The publication of a new follow-up study of a transracial sample deserves special attention because the volume of longitudinal research in this field is fairly small. Alan Rushton and Helen Minnis provide a critical review of a recent North American paper by Brooks and Barth, and consider the quality of the evidence presented, the methodological limitations, what can be safely concluded from the study and the implications that can be drawn for practice in the UK. The reviewers conclude that the nature of these placements, the loss to follow-up and weakness of some of the measures inevitably restrict drawing firm conclusions, and readers should be aware that the researchers may have presented an over-optimistic view of placement outcome. However, the study broadly confirms the findings derived from other transracial samples that placement matching for race may not be the strongest predictor of outcome and that transracial placements do not necessarily preclude the achievement of a secure ethnic identity.
