INFORMATION DISCLOSURE AND OPENNESS IN ADOPTION - STATE POLICY AND EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE

This paper presents the rationale and details of state policy with reg ard to sealed record statutes and open adoption practice. The empirica l work focuses on attitudes toward, and experiences with, openness in adoption in a sample of 1,274 adoptive parents in 743 adoptive homes i n New York State. Results indicate that a substantial majority of adop tive parents in the study favor a change in state statutes allowing gr eater openness in adoption and that mothers are more open to the conce pt of information disclosure than adoptive fathers. Open adoptions wer e practiced in only a minority of adoptions in this study. When contac t does exist, it is far more likely to be with a birth mother than a b irth father. Openness in adoption was found to differ by age, race, an d by prior experience with fostering or adoption. Older adoptive mothe rs were more supportive of open adoption records, while white adoptive fathers and both adoptive mothers and adoptive fathers who had prior experience with fostering or adoptions were less open to the concept o f open adoption records. Conclusions are draw and recommendations made for future policy in this area.