Concerns re Birkbeck research study on Attitudes towards prospective adopters

[Beetham]

I know a few people this evening were expressing concerns relating to a PHD study about adoption, however the thread has been deleted. Incase anyone missed the details to be able to feedback concerns I've pasted them below. The original post included the professors name and email which I havent included as I'm not sure about mumsnet's rules incase its viewed as doxing:

Attitudes Toward Adults Who are Planning to Adopt Children study - https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Q3T76S7.

If you have concerns about this study, please contact the School’s Ethics Officer at: [email protected].

I'm going to contact them. I genuinely can't believe this was approved.

Not even sure where to start with feedback on this but I will do too

Thanks for this,I've come on this morning for the ethics committee email so really glad you've put it up thankyou.

Herr is my email. I got an automated response, so it's arrived!

Hello

A link to complete this survey was posted on mum's net yesterday, in the Adoption section, and I started to complete it.

And it is appalling - how could this ever have been approved?

Firstly, it makes huge mistakes in knowledge of the adoption process. As far as I know, households of three people cannot adopt. And no one is allowed to check out children in foster care, never mind ask if they would like to be adopted. The approval process is long winded and everything is managed by the LA, which does not allow random strangers to go round looking at children.

Secondly, it said that we would randomly be given one of 7 scenarios but we all got the polyamorous set up.

Thirdly, the questions about how the children would cope do not differentiate between the effects of early trauma, genetic inheritance, intra womb experience like foetal alcohol or drugs, attachment difficulties, identity issues - all of which are massive in adoption - and the issues living with a polyamorous set of parents. I assume that the adoption angle is actually of zero interest, given the rest of the questions, which drop any pretence of being about adoption and are all about attitudes to sex.

I am astonished that this was passed. I see that it has been removed from mum's net but I am concerned that (a) it was ever approved and (b) that it is still out there, unchecked.

FYI, adoption is a complex business and people using it as the subject of any work should be very confident that they understand the issues before steaming in with poorly understanding. For what it's worth, children need huge amounts of security from the adults in their lives. A couple could adopt, and I have known people adopt with say a parent living in the same house, but I believe that a three-way relationship would be incredibly challenging for all concerned.

Good email @Arran2024 ive been busy with work but will be emailing the ethics committee this evening.

I will also email them

I got a response from the university today. Not impressed by it. Anyone else?

Yes me too

The survey is currently closed, that's something. Let's hope it will be either completely rewritten or binned.

What did it say? I haven’t got one 🤷🏻‍♀️

Thank you so much for your email about the study with the title: ‘Attitudes Toward Adults Who are Planning to Adopt Children’. Adoption is a very important process, and we would never want to produce any research that would causes any problems. I have met with the researchers to ensure that the project has been removed from Mumsnet, and to ask about what can be done next. As several complaints were made about the study, I am writing a general letter covering the points made.

Many of the points made concerned misrepresentation of the current process of adoption, or the challenges experienced by adopted children -- thank you for the very important points you raise. I have informed the researchers of them. Your comments and concerns are absolutely valid, and I can see that the study advert did not adequately make the research project’s purpose clear. I have made this point to the researchers concerned. To give you some more context, the specific aim of this study is to understand people’s attitudes and views on adopted children’s placement in different types of adoptive family, as controlled by UK government legislation and professionally administered by social services. The 7 different versions of the paragraph long description in the study were created and described in the information screen as “fictional stories” about possible placement in different adoptive family types to ask people about their views/attitudes, if the story read was to be true. Given those parameters, it was approved as a study.
The comments made about everyone getting the same condition of the questionnaire are puzzling, as I can see that the platform hosting the anonymous survey did randomly give each person one of the 7 versions of the story to respond to. However, it is possible that other people who you know received the same version of the story in the randomization and each person would have seen the same questions after reading the version given.

Please be assured that we are taking this seriously and appreciate your concerns.

--

I received the same response.

There is no point in surveying public attitudes toward prospective family structures that are not even legally possible. Adoption is not about finding children for parents.