Navigating Openness and Contact in Child Welfare Adoptions

Abstract

Some children who are adopted via foster care have contact with their birth families (e.g., birth siblings), yet little research has addressed this. This chapter addresses the experiences of families who adopted their children through foster care, with attention to adoptive parents’ feelings and patterns regarding birth family contact. As this chapter details, many families involved in child welfare adoptions had complex feelings about openness. Some families had significant concerns that mitigated their willingness to pursue contact. Others were opposed to birth parent contact but, to varying degrees, were willing to pursue birth sibling contact. In some cases, contact was initiated but then halted temporarily or permanently because of the perceived risks and drawbacks associated with such contact. Yet amid a lack of contact, families often remained communicatively open with their children, and some did not rule out contact in the future.