Parents’ expectations and experiences of caring for an adopted child.
Research type
Research Study
Full title
An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) of parents’ pre-placement expectations and post-adoption experiences of caring for a child who has been adopted from the care system.
IRAS ID
161735
Contact name
Gareth Morgan
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Leicestershire Partnership Trust
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
161735, IRAS reference number
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 10 months, 1 days
Research summary
How do parents make sense of their expectations and experiences of caring for an adopted child when the placement is more difficult or challenging than initially anticipated?
68,840 children are currently cared for by local authorities in the UK. Whilst recent policy reforms have contributed to a rise in the number of looked-after-children being placed with families, it is estimated that approximately 20% of placements eventually become 'disrupted' (break down). Previous quantitative research has focused on identifying risk factors that make placements more vulnerable to disruption, however few qualitative studies have been conducted to offer an insight into the lived experiences of parents who encounter difficulties in caring for their adopted child.
The aim of this study is to explore parents’ expectations and experiences of caring for a looked-after-child. This study will capture rich and in-depth (qualitative) information from adoptive parents who have self-identified that they have found caring for their child as more difficult than initially expected. Adoptive parents will be recruited from the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) Looked-After and Adopted Children’s (LAC) team in Northamptonshire. The main caregiver will be invited to take part in a single face-to-face interview that will last up to two hours. Interviews will be audio recorded and analysed using a method known as Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to identify important themes in parents’ accounts.
The rationale for focusing on parents who self-identify as experiencing their placement as being more difficult than expected is to ensure that the findings are clinically relevant. Indeed, it is anticipated that the information collected during this research will be used to inform professionals working with adoptive parents and prospective parents about the lived experiences of caring for looked-after-child and enable services to plan support for adoptive families to reduce the likelihood of placements being disrupted.
REC name
East Midlands - Leicester South Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/EM/0026
Date of REC Opinion
18 Mar 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion