Maria Barbosa-Ducharne

Adoption Breakdown: Concept, Research and Implications

Purpose: A rich and heterogeneous body of knowledge about adoption breakdown has accumulated in recent years. The goal of this article is to review the existing research literature on the topic. Method: A comprehensive review of journal articles, book chapters, and technical reports addressing the issue of adoption breakdown was conducted. Results: Terminological and methodological difficulties are discussed before the main findings about the incidence of adoption breakdown are presented. A detailed examination of the child, parent, and support and service characteristics associated with the breakdown experience follows. The review ends with the analysis of some policy and practice implications, as well as with suggestions about how to increase and improve the study of adoption breakdown. Discussion: Although research into adoption breakdown has achieved a considerable progress in recent years, improvements are still needed in both the basic research and the applied implications domains.

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

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.