Feasibility of a group-based intervention for adoptive parents v1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A six-week attachment and trauma-informed psychological intervention for adoptive parents: A feasibility study.
IRAS ID
278638
Contact name
Rachel Draper
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Cardiff University, Research Governance
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
ES/P00069X/1, Grant number for Rachel Draper's PhD
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 9 months, 30 days
Research summary
The proposed study is a feasibility study of a six-week group intervention provided to adoptive parents by clinical psychologists. Feasibility studies represent a first step towards assessing if a given intervention is useful for the group of people it is intended to help, and seeks to answer the question 'can this study be done?', in advance of conducting a full scale clinical trial.
Children who are adopted in the UK have previously been removed from their birth parents and placed in the care of the state due to concerns for their welfare. Prior to being adopted, all children have experienced multiple separations from caregivers and many have experienced abuse and/or neglect. Research suggests a universal need for support amongst adoptive families. Whilst attachment-informed therapeutic approaches (models focussed on child-caregiver relationships) appear to fit with the needs of this population, the relevant clinical guidelines do not consider attachment-informed therapies to be supported by sufficiently good quality evidence to warrant their recommendation.
We are seeking to find out whether the six-week group is acceptable to parents and clinicians, and to begin to explore the short and medium term changes for parents following the group. We will also report on a number of feasibility indices (e.g. group attendance, dropout) and explore the acceptability of taking part in research whilst attending the group for parents.
We will ask parents to complete questionnaires before they attend the first group session, after they attend the sixth group session and two months later, and ask parents currently on the waiting list for the group to complete questionnaires whilst on the waiting list, and then further questionnaires once they start attending the group. We will also conduct interviews with parents, the experienced adoptive parents who help to facilitate the group, social workers and clinical psychologists.
REC name
Wales REC 6
REC reference
21/WA/0051
Date of REC Opinion
19 Feb 2021
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion