Adoption research and practice

Understanding the interplay between biological factors passed on from parents to children and the everyday family environments that children experience is key to promoting knowledge aimed at supporting children's positive emotional, behavioural and educational development.

Andrew and Virginia Rudd Centre for Adoption Research and Practice

A new research centre at the University of Sussex is taking a broad and interdisciplinary approach, drawing on expertise in the areas of psychology, social work, education, law and medicine, to promote understanding as to 'what helps and what hurts' children in the context of modern family life.

The Andrew and Virginia Rudd Centre for Adoption Research and Practice will primarily focus on promoting knowledge relating to children who are reared by parents other than their biological mothers and fathers, specifically children who have been adopted, experienced family transition (eg parental separation-divorce and remarriage), or spent time in institutional or foster care.

A core objective of the Centre is the provision of scientific knowledge, linked to practice developments that inform policy-based decision-making aimed at improving outcomes for children, parents, carers and families in adoptive and related family contexts.

Professor Gordon Harold's research

In April 2013, Professor Gordon Harold – an expert in child development and the role of the family in children's psychological development – was appointed as Andrew and Virginia Rudd Chair in Psychology and inaugural Director to help establish the Andrew and Virginia Rudd Centre for Adoption Research and Practice.

Professor Harold's primary research interests focus on how family relationship factors affect children's psychological development, with complementary research examining how genetic and family environmental factors work together to influence psychological outcomes for children.

While the debate on the relative role of nature versus nurture in shaping the behaviour and development of individuals is a relatively old one, new developments in study design are helping to advance insights into the relative contribution and social and clinical significance of genetics versus environment.

It is perhaps not surprising to suggest that both positive and negative family environmental factors, such as rearing or caregiving experiences, as well as early prenatal factors (eg smoking/alcohol use during pregnancy) and genetic factors inherited from parents collectively affect children's normal versus abnormal development.

However, understanding the relative and combined role of these factors is the focus of major international research efforts, including work to be conducted at the Rudd Centre.

The child's role in influencing family experiences

The Centre's research will also examine the role that children themselves play in influencing family experiences and the environments that parents/carers provide.

For example, genetic factors may lead children to seek out or promote specific family environments, which has particular implications for carers/rearing parents of adoptive children (and families where children are genetically unrelated; eg remarriage, assisted reproduction).

A major challenge, when negative behaviour arises, and when there is a need to provide support or intervention, is to ascertain how much of that behaviour results from the rearing environments children experience or the role that children themselves play in promoting the rearing environments that they experience (eg examining child-on-parent versus parent-on-child influences).

To address these questions, particularly in adoption contexts, Professor Harold and colleagues have employed two novel research designs that allow unique examination of the relative role of genetic and family environmental influences on children's psychological development.

A recent study utilised a large US-based cohort of more than 500 children adopted at birth, their adoptive parents and birth mothers, and, in a subset, their birth fathers.

Studies of children adopted at birth that include information from both biological and adoptive parents are rare and provide certain design advantages over studies that focus on children adopted at older ages.

In an additional UK-based study, a sample of more than 1,000 parents and children conceived through in vitro fertilisation was employed where children were genetically related or unrelated to their rearing mothers and fathers at the point of conception, facilitating what may be described as an 'adoption at conception' design. This allows the novel examination of genetic versus family environmental influences on children where one, neither or both parents are genetically related to their children.

Such studies have helped establish that, in addition to harsh parenting practices being associated with behavioural and emotional problems in childhood and adolescence, the quality of couples' relationships, among other factors, can also place children at elevated risk for negative psychological outcomes. While such findings may sound like common sense, providing robust scientific evidence is essential in terms of facilitating intervention policy and providing education and support for families of children with emotional and/or behavioural problems.

Ultimately, this work expands the focus of what constitutes adoption and adoption related contexts, in relation to research, practice and policy.

Children in modern life are raised in a spectrum of family environments where one or both parent(s) may or may not be genetically related.

Understanding the interplay between parents and children in genetically related and unrelated family contexts is relevant in terms of understanding what the provision of secure and nurturing environments really means, how such adaptive environments may be promoted, the interplay between parents/carers and children in promoting adaptive versus maladaptive family environments, and the skills and resources required by rearing parents that may be promoted through the development and delivery of effective intervention, prevention and related support programmes.

The essence of the Rudd Centre is to promote cross-disciplinary research and knowledge that provides the best support for children, parents/carers, and other significant family figures, in relation to adoption and extended family contexts.