12/21/2025
For decades, adoption research has largely been framed from the perspective of adoptive parents. Now, research is being led by the very people who were studied, adopted adults, who have questions about the differences in their lived experiences and what they were told to believe.
The preliminary data shatters the fairy tale.
Out of 661 adult adoptees surveyed, only 6% described their adoption as positive, while 9% reported feeling neutral, 20% negative, and 25% confusing. A staggering 40% described their adoption as traumatic.
Adoption trauma is real. And we can do better.
*If you are a policymaker: center family preservation and address poverty before parental termination.
*If you are a mental health or medical professional: demand and implement adoptee-centered education, diagnosis, and treatment.
*If you are an educator or institution: require standardized, adoptee-centered curricula.
*If you are an ally: amplify adult adoptee voices and challenge the fairy tale narrative.
Adoption will never end, we know this.
And still, we owe future adoptees more than compliance.
We owe them change.
** This is from our study that closed November 17, 2025. We are presenting more complex analyses and outcomes at the Society for Social Work Research in DC Jan ‘26. Once that presentation is done I will share those results here!
