"If we’re not coping, what chance have we got of parenting our children well?" Adopters' mental health and help-seeking experiences

Platt, Nicola, Marsden, Sarah, Williams, Richard ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6333-9448 , Wrench, Elizabeth, Vowles, Eleanor and Machin, Laura (2025) "If we’re not coping, what chance have we got of parenting our children well?" Adopters' mental health and help-seeking experiences. Adoption Quarterly .

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Abstract

Developmental and mental health challenges experienced by adopted children can manifest vicariously in adopters. Yet there is a perceived lack of consideration toward adopters’ mental health throughout the adoption process. Studies exist on birth-parental mental health and support needs, and mental illness and behavioral challenges in adopted children, yet comparatively little research explores the mental health experiences of adopters. This study seeks to redress this evidence gap by presenting experiences of adoptive parents in their own words. Results highlight experiences of powerlessness, invalidation, isolation, and silence, all of which contribute to adopters’ poor mental health, and prevent adopters seeking support.

Item Type:	Article
Journal / Publication Title:	Adoption Quarterly
Publisher:	Taylor and Francis Group
ISSN:	1544-452X
Departments:	Institute of Engineering, Computing and Advanced Manufacture
Additional Information:	Dr Richard Williams, Associate Professor in Computational Modelling of Complex Systems, University of Cumbria, UK and Senior Lecturer in Management Science, Lancaster University, UK. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.
Depositing User:	Anna Lupton
Date Deposited:	12 Dec 2025 12:09
Last Modified:	12 Dec 2025 12:09
URI:	https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/9237

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