How the adoption of children was affected by the pandemic (in TSF)
ProChild CoLAB was invited by TSF Radio to participate in a report on the adoption of children in times of pandemic.
In this report, researcher Stephanie Alves of ProChild CoLAB talked about the results of the project “Integrating a child into a family in covid-19 time: What challenges and potentialities” developed, in addition to the researchers of ProChild CoLAB, by Margarida Rangel Henriques, Professor of the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Porto, and Isabel Pastor, Director of the Adoption Unit, Civil Patronage and Family Reception of the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa.
The project aimed to explore the views of adoption workers and adoption professionals on different aspects of the integration of children into their new families in times of pandemic COVID-19, namely
1) the challenges experienced by adoption professionals and adjustments that have been made to working practices in this area,
2) potential difficulties and benefits that have arisen from the pandemic to the transition to adoption process, and
3) to identify promising working practices that could be recommended both in pandemic and pandemic-free contexts.
To this end, parents who received children between March and June 2020 and the adoption professionals who followed these families were interviewed. The negative impact of the pandemic on the adoption processes of children was addressed, but it was also possible to reflect on the benefits experienced and learning for the future, in order to identify promising practices in this area.
The results of this project are expected to be published in an international scientific journal (scientific article submitted).
The final report with other invited persons, was issued in TSF on February 9, 2022.