The extent to which birth relatives are able to adjust to the reality of changed roles and relationships following their child's adoption may be crucially linked to the usefulness to the child of ongoing post-adoption contact. In the study described by Elsbeth Neil, 19 birth relatives of 15 young adopted children were interviewed about their experiences of having a child adopted and about having face-to-face contact with this child after adoption. In most cases birth relatives related how face-to-face contact had helped them to accept their child's adoption, largely because contact reassured them of the child's welfare and emphasised the position of the adopters as the psychological parents.
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