ABSTRACT
Open adoption, which has gained increasing momentum since the 1980s (see, Baran & Pannor, 1990; Brodzinsky & Schechter, 1990; Powledge, 1985), 1 is an alternative that attempts to improve on the option of traditional, closed adoption (no communication between biological and adoptive parents). On the most general level, the term open adoption has been used to refer to any of the many variations on the theme of increased communication among participants in the adoption system. As Demick and Wapner (1988a) reported, four levels of open adoption–from least to most extreme–may be conceptualized as follow: (a) restricted open adoption (arrangements are made for information about the child’s development to be sent periodically, through the adoption agency, to the birth parents for a specified time following placement); (b) semiopen adoption (birth parents meet the adoptive parents, but no identifying information is shared); (c) full open adoption (both sets of parents meet and share information); and (d) continuing open adoption (birth parents and adoptive parents establish a plan for continuing contact with one another over the course of the child’s development).
