Child and Family Law Quarterly: 'Adoption: research, policy and practice'.

Quinton, David ; Selwyn, Julie

18:4, pp 459-77, 2006

The authors discuss the role and use of research in the context of current pressure to make policy and practice more 'evidence based'. Discussion is focused on adoption and uses three contentious areas of adoption policy and practice to illustrate the complexities of the use of research, as well as the blurring arguments based on 'outcomes' and those based on rights. The areas are: the matching of children and adopters; contact between adopted children and their birth parents; and attachment theory as a basis for understanding children's difficulties and for devising interventions. Tensions between policy-making and research inputs to this are discussed, along with some key methodological issues in using research in policy and practice.