Thank you to all who have taken part in the study and to those orgs and individuals who have helped us reach you. We are currently analysing data collected and aim to have findings to share in Spring/Summer 2021. This is a little later than anticpated, as a result of COVID-19..
Take part
Recruitment is full, and has now closed (July 2020).
We cannot carry out studies like this without hearing from parents and grandparents and are reliant upon people taking part. There is so little known about your experiences and a study like this is unlikely to be funded again, so thank you all for trusting us and sharing your story. We set a number of ‘quotas’ for recruitment (to ensure a diversity of responses) and have heard from a wide range of people, in a variety of situations.
Parents
- Parents for whom becoming a mum/dad has been quite straightforward and from those who have run into significant difficulties
- Parents who live with their child(ren), and those who do not
- Parents who themselves have had quite happy upbringings and those who struggled within their adoptive families
- Parents who have had lots of openness and information around adoption and those for whom there remain lots of questions.
Grandparents
- Grandparents for whom parenting and grandparenting have been quite straightforward and from those whose adoptions and adopted children as parents have run into difficulties
- Grandparents whose grandchild lives with their adopted child, and grandparents whose grandchild lives with them or with someone else
- Grandparents who see their grandchild regularly, and from those who have little or no contact with their grandchildren.
Current number of participants
20/20
Mums
20/20
Dads
20/20
Grandmothers
20/20
Grandfathers
Thank you for your interest in taking part in this study. As of July 2020 recruitment has now closed. A huge thank you to all who have taken part. We are continuing our analyses and following setbacks connected to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, have extended the project. We will have results to share, initially with stakeholders, in Spring 2021.
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Because adoption has changed so much in recent decades, we are focussing on adoptions in England and Wales within the last 30 years.
So, if you were adopted/adopted a child in, or after 1989, you are eligible to take part. We appreciate that having a cut off of the last 30 years may disappoint some interested people with important stories to tell, but it is a condition of our funding to ensure findings are relevant to contemporary adoptions.
Also, we unfortunately cannot include step-parents in this study, so if you were adopted and are a step-parent only, we cannot include you. We can, however, include adopted parents who have themselves gone on to adopt a child.
If you are unsure as to whether you fit these criteria, please contact us to ask.
To take part, we would like to visit and interview you face to face to hear your story. We have consulted with small groups of adopted parents and adopter grandparents to help make taking part in the study feel safe and comfortable for you to tell us about your experiences. You are in control of the interview. They are confidential and usually take about 2 hours. There is a £30 voucher to thank you for your time and attention.
Here is some more information about what is involved, to help you decide if you want to take part in the project:
2x PDF information sheets
Interested in taking part?