Adopters Life Storybooks Research

This research, conducted jointly between the UK children’s charity Coram and the University of Bristol, aims to address the absence in the academic literature of adopters’ perspectives on their children’s life storybooks.

Key Highlights

  • This research, conducted jointly between the UK children’s charity Coram and the University of Bristol, aims to address the absence in the academic literature of adopters’ perspectives on their children’s life storybooks. Forty adopters from England and Wales participated in either focus group or telephone interviews.
  • Whilst some of the accounts were of positive experiences, there was a broad consensus that: many books were of poor quality, children had been poorly prepared to explore their histories, adoption professionals and agencies did not seem to prioritise life storybooks, and that adopters felt poorly prepared in how to use and update life storybooks with their children.
  • Clear messages for adoption agencies can be elicited regarding the preparation and use of life storybooks, such as improved training for professionals and monitoring of the quality of books produced and better access to support and guidance for adopters to engage in this crucial work with their children over time.