Beyond the Child’s Age at Placement: Risk and Protective Factors in Preadoption Breakdown in Portugal

Abstract

Purpose: The main goals were to determine the incidence of preadoption breakdown in Portugal, describe preadoptive parents’ reasons for ending placement, compare intact/disrupted placements, and identify adoption disruption risk and protective factors. Method: A matched design involving a case file analysis of 71 disrupted and 71 intact preadoptive placements was used. Results: The accumulated incidence of preadoption disruption was 5.8%. Adoptive parents’ motives for requesting removal included the child’s behavior, their own parenting limitations, and dissatisfaction with professional interventions. These three domains were present in the group comparisons and explained 54% of the variance, predicting group membership for 80.8% cases. Conclusion: Besides age at placement, other risk factors related to the child, the adopters, and the professional practices help to gain a more complete understanding of adoption disruption.