Much anxiety is generated about whether or not a particular family placement will have a satisfactory outcome for the children concerned. This article by Barbara Prynn is based on research in which the relationship between adopters and their adopted children was examined. The parents of 50 adoptive families were interviewed. They were asked about their early lives in their families of origin, their experience with their adopted children and their life as adopters in the wider social context. Links are made between a number of aspects of adoptive family life and outcome, in particular the significance of adopters' own early attachment experience.
AinsworthMBleharMWatersEWallS, (eds), Patterns of Attachment, Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1978.
2.
BarthRBerryM, ‘A study of disrupted adoptive placements of adolescents’, Child WelfareLXIX: 3, pp 209–25, 1990.
3.
BelskyJPenskyE, ‘Developmental history, personality, and family relationships: toward an emergent family system’, in HindeRStevensonHinde J (eds), Relationships Within Families, Mutual Influences, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.
4.
BerryM, ‘Contributors to adjustment problems of adoptees: a review of the longitudinal research’, Child & Adolescent Social Work Journal9:6, pp 525–40, 1992.
5.
BowlbyJ, Attachment and Loss, Vol 2, Separation: Anxiety and anger, London: Hogarth Press, 1973.
6.
BowlbyJ, A Secure Base: Clinical applications of attachment theory, London: Routledge, 1988.
7.
BrinichP, ‘Some potential effects of adoption upon self and object representations’, Psychoanalytic Study of the Child35, pp 107–33, 1980.
8.
BrinichP, ‘Adoption, ambivalence and mourning: clinical and theoretical inter-relationships’, Adoption & Fostering14:1, pp 6–17, 1990.
9.
BurgessR, In the Field, London: Allen & Unwin, 1982.
10.
ByngHall J, ‘Scripts and legends in families and family therapy’, Family Process27, pp 167–79, 1988.
11.
CharlesMRashidSThoburnJ, ‘The placement of black children with permanent new families’, Adoption & Fostering16:3, pp 13–19, 1992.
12.
CrandellLFitzgeraldHWhippleE, ‘Dyadic synchrony in parent—child interactions: a link with maternal representations of attachment relationships’, Infant Mental Health Journal18:3, pp 247–64, 1997.
13.
CrowellJTrebouxD, ‘A review of adult attachment measures: implications for theory and research’, Social Development4:3, pp 294–327, 1995.
14.
DeutschH, ‘The psychology of women: a psychoanalytical interpretation’, in Motherhood2, New York: Grune & Stratton, 1945.
15.
FeigelmanWSilvermanA, ‘The long-term effects of transracial adoption’, Social Service Review December, pp 588–602, 1984.
16.
FraibergPAdelsonEShapiroV, ‘Ghosts in the nursery: a psychoanalytic approach to the problem of impaired infant—mother relationships’, Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry14, pp 387–422, 1975.
17.
GotlibIMountJCordyNWhiffenN, ‘Depression and perceptions of early parenting: a longitudinal investigation’, British Journal of Psychiatry152, pp 24–27, 1988.
18.
HazanCShaverP, ‘Romantic love conceptualized as an attachment process’, Journal of Personality & Social Psychology52, pp 511–24, 1987.
19.
HeardDBarrettM, ‘Attachment and the family relationships of children with specific reading disability’, in ParkesCStevenson-HindeJ (eds), The Place of Attachment in Human Behaviour, London: Tavistock Publications, 1982.
20.
HenryJ, Pathways to Madness, New York: Vintage Books, 1973.
21.
HoksbergenR, ‘Understanding and preventing failing adoptions’, in HibbsE, Adoption: International perspectives, Madison: International Universities Press, 1991.
22.
HolmesJ, John Bowlby and Attachment Theory, London: Routledge, 1993.
23.
JaffeeBFanshelD, How they Fared in Adoption, New York: Columbia University Press, 1970.
24.
KayeKWarrenS, ‘Discourse about adoption in adoptive families’, Journal of Family Psychology1:4, pp 406–33, 1988.
25.
KirkD, Shared Fate, New York: The Free Press, 1964.
KleinM, ‘Some theoretical conclusions regarding the emotional life of the infant’, in KleinMHeimannPIsaacsSRiviereJ, Developments in Psychoanalysis, London: The Hogarth Press, 1952.
28.
KraftAPalomboMMichellDDeanMMeyersMSchmidtA, ‘The psychological dimensions of infertility’, American Journal of Orthopsychiatry50: 4, pp 618–28, 1980.
29.
LePereD, ‘Vulnerability to crises during the life cycle of the adoption family’, Journal of Social Work & Human Sexuality6: 1, pp 73–85, 1987.
30.
Levy-ShiffR, ‘Psychological adjustment of adoptive parents-to-be’, American Journal of Orthopsychiatry60: 2, pp 258–67, 1990.
31.
LewisH, ‘The psychiatric aspects of adoption’, in HowellsJ (ed), Modern Perspectives in Child Psychiatry, London: Oliver & Boyd, 1967.
32.
LiftonB, Journey of the Adoptive Self, New York: Basic Books, 1994.
33.
MainM, ‘Recent studies in attachment: overview, with selected implications for clinical work’, in GoldbergSMuirRKerrJ, Attachment Theory: Social, developmental and clinical perspectives, London: The Analytic Press, 1995.
34.
MinuchinP, ‘A systems perspective on development’, in HindeRStevenson-HindeJ (eds), Relationships Within Families: Mutual influences, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.
35.
NickmanS, ‘Losses in adoption: the need for dialogue’, Psychoanalytic Study of the Child40, pp 365–98, 1985.
36.
PayneS, ‘Nursing research: a social science?’, in McKenzieGPowellJUsherR, Understanding Social Research, London: Falmer Press, 1997.
37.
RaynorL, The Adopted Child Comes of Age, London: George Allen & Unwin, 1980.
38.
ReissD, The Family's Construction of Reality, Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1981.
39.
RenneD, ‘There's always adoption’, in RosenbergE, The Adoption Life Cycle, New York: Free Press, 1992.
40.
SchechterM, ‘About adoptive parents’, in AnthonyEBenedekT (eds), Parenthood: Its psychology and psychopathology, Boston: Little Brown, 1970.
SimonRAlsteinH, Transracial Adoptees and their Families, New York: Praeger, 1987.
43.
TriseliotisJ, ‘Adoption outcomes: a review’, in HibbsE, Adoption: International perspectives, Madison: International Universities Press, 1991.
44.
VetereAGaleA, Ecological Studies of Family Life, Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, 1987.
45.
WiesenfieldAMalatestaC, ‘Infant distress: variables affecting responses of caregivers and others’, in HoffmanLGandelmanRSchiffmanH, Parenting: Its causes and consequences, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1982.
46.
WinnicottD, ‘The mother—infant experience of mutuality’, in AnthonyEBenedekT, Parenthood: Its psychology and psychopathology, Boston: Little Brown, 1970.
