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November 2004
Funded by: The David and Lucile Packard Foundation
Prepared by: The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute
This literature review analyzes social science research studies on adoption termination and
stability. The review focuses on foster care adoptions because the vast majority of
researchers have focused on this type, as opposed to private infant or international
adoptions. In addition, this report incorporates James Rosenthal’s findings from a 1993
literature review of termination and stability (also funded by the Packard Foundation), and
summarizes post-1993 research. This review’s objectives, along with the accompanying 15-state survey project, are to assess: the frequency of adoption terminations; the parent, child and system factors associated with termination and stability; and areas where further research would improve policy and practice.
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