What’s Working for Children: A Policy Study of Adoption Stability and Termination

November 2004

Funded by: The David and Lucile Packard Foundation

Prepared by: The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute

This literature review analyzes social science research studies on adoption termination and

stability. The review focuses on foster care adoptions because the vast majority of

researchers have focused on this type, as opposed to private infant or international

adoptions. In addition, this report incorporates James Rosenthal’s findings from a 1993

literature review of termination and stability (also funded by the Packard Foundation), and

summarizes post-1993 research. This review’s objectives, along with the accompanying 15-state survey project, are to assess: the frequency of adoption terminations; the parent, child and system factors associated with termination and stability; and areas where further research would improve policy and practice.

What's Working for Children

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