The disruption process refers to the termination of an adoption and can occur either before the legal finalization of the adoption or after. Without question most adoptions succeed and adoptive families remain together. However, 10 to 25 percent of adoption disrupt before they are legally finalized and 1 to 10 percent of adoptions are dissolved after legal finalization. Most of disruptions occur with older adopted children.
The disruption process is usually initiated by the adoptive family via a court petition and resembles a divorce procedure.
If in the majority of the cases adoptions are a success, a disruption may happen for a various mix of reasons: mental issues; the child’s past history; physical violence; poor matching; poor preparation (of the parents and the child); misinformation or incomplete disclosure about the child’s needs, inadequate post- adoption support; that will lead to a inability for the family to parent successfully.
The disruption process is hard on every party involved in the adoption: the adoptive family must learn how to deal with this new loss, as well as the adopted child and the social worker might see the disruption as a professional failure and therefore, feel guilty.
When a disruption occurs it’s important to provide special care to the family and the adopted child and in most cases therapy may be necessary.