Age of Child, Preadoptive Relationship and Time to Adoption from Foster Care

Background/Purpose: Moving foster children to timely permanency is a top child welfare priority.  It is generally acknowledged that time spent in foster care after termination of parental rights (TPR) before adoption is a period of “limbo” for children, and the phrase “legal orphans” was coined to highlight the lack of legally recognized family connections.  Research indicates that many children experience TPR as a loss, and that the lack of permanent caregiving relationships is a stressor for children in foster care.  Adolescent participation in permanency planning and consent to adoption is encouraged in child welfare practice.  School-age children are a developmentally distinct group from adolescents in their ability to plan, but they are able to understand the distinction between being in a foster placement and permanent placement.  This study addresses the questions: (1) what is the “risk” of adoption after maternal TPR for school-age children?  (2) does pre-adoptive relationship change the “risk” of adoption by age group?   

Methods: We use data from the 2004-2011 Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System, inclusive of adopted children with maternal TPR dates between 10/1/2003 – 9/30/2010.  There are 296,799 records in the dataset.  We use Cox proportional hazards regression to assess the time between time of maternal TPR and adoption date, and the “risk” of adoption. 

Results:  Controlling for the pre-adoptive relationship between the adoptive parents and the child, and referencing age in years at time of maternal TPR, children age 0-1 were 19% more likely than children age 13 and older to be adopted in any given week after maternal TPR (hazard ratio 1.19).  Children age 2-5 were 4% less likely than children age 13 and older to be adopted in any given week after maternal TPR (hazard ratio .96).  Children age 6-12 were 21% less likely than children age 13 and older to be adopted in any given week after maternal TPR (hazard ratio .79).  Mean weeks between maternal TPR and adoption for children age 0-1 was 44.9; for children age 2-5 was 53.1; for children age 6-12 was 61.8; for children age 13 and older was 51.3. 

Conclusions and Implications:  These results describe the length of time between maternal TPR and adoption for adopted children.  They indicate that among adopted children and regardless of pre-adoptive relationship to adoptive parents, children age 0-1 had the highest “risk” of adoption in any given week after maternal TPR.  Children age 2-5 and youth age 13 and older shared a similar “risk” of adoption.  School-age children age 6-12 had the longest survival rate, or the lowest “risk” of adoption in any given week after TPR.  This suggests that there may be opportunities to consider school-age children in targeted adoption efforts as well as address effects of spending a lengthy period of time in foster care after TPR.