ABSTRACT
The interaction of multiple factors associated with the adoptive parents, children, and agency led to varying outcomes of the adoptions in the study. Researchers reviewed each case and categorized emerging themes in terms of worker/agency factors, adoptive parent factors, and child factors. Differential reporting and documentation could account for some variations in placement practices as delineated in case narratives. There were a number of strengths associated with agency practices, adoptive parents, and adopted children that served to stabilize the adoptions of many special need children. The children in intact placements had generally been less traumatized, were younger, and displayed fewer externalized behaviors than the children in disrupted/dissolved placements. Children in disrupted/dissolved adoptions had been removed and placed at older ages, had been more severely traumatized, were exhibiting more troubling behaviors such as aggression and sexual acting-out, had experienced numerous losses, and were at greater risk at the time of the adoptive placements.
