Open Adoptions in Child Welfare: Social Worker and Foster/Adoptive Parent Attitudes

Abstract

This exploratory study assessed caseworkers' and foster parents' experience, training, and attitudes related to youth's post-adoption contact with birth family members. The Open Adoption Scale, a validated instrument, was used to measure the attitudes of 122 caseworkers and 127 foster parents toward post-adoption contact. Only 7.4% of caseworkers and 26.8% of foster parents received “thorough” training in post-adoption contact. Caseworkers were more favorable toward post-adoption contact than foster parents. Experienced workers were more open to post-adoption contact between birth parents and adopted children. The results of this study suggest the need for a more well-established infrastructure of training and support.