Post Adoption Services In Shanghai

In China,thousands of children are legally adopted by local families every year,making the country the second in the world for number of registered adoptions.But,if we search for information about post-adoption services for adoptive families,it seems that China is entirely lacking in any sort of post adoptive support,including counseling systems regarding this delicate phase of child adoption.Through the analysis of literature,interviews and media analysis on adoption and post-adoption in English,Italian and Chinese,this explorative study investigates the cultural,historical and legal causes that led child adoption to develop until the current times,seeking the reasons that account for the lack of adequate support services and suggesting solutions for the development of local post-adoption services to support adopting families and their adopted children in China.For this reason,analyzing best practices from Italy,a country that has developed a quite mature public network providing support to adoptive families during the whole adoption phase,will provide practical examples of how local governments can monitor the process of adoption and avoid adoption failure.Evidence is also provided as to how cultural influences have been fundamental in shaping attitudes and social behavior towards the phenomenon of adoption and have influenced social policies in both China and Italy.In order to better understand the reasons behind the development of the current Chinese adoption system and to analyze the causes of the lack of a family support system,Bronfenbrenner's theory ‘The Ecology of Human Development',has been applied to this study.The analysis of the three settings that interact directly or indirectly with the adoptive family is useful to understand the obstacles that have prevented and still prevent the development of a system of public support offered to families in the post-adoption phase.The result of my research shows that,currently,there is no public post-adoption service in Shanghai.Through interviews with the public bodies responsible for adoption and public officials,the difficulties they face in monitoring the status of adoption once the registration procedure is completed are evident.On the other hand,they face difficulties in following families that change residence frequently in order to keep the adoption secret as much as possible,lack of post-adoption specialists,and lack of information material on post-adoption to be given to adoptive families.On the other hand,interviews with adoptive mothers and the analysis of comments on local social media also highlight the objective difficulties of adoptive families.They suffer from a lack of information about the adopted child,bureaucratic difficulties and are unable to tell the adoptive children their story of adoption,but at the same time,they are afraid to seek institutions' help.Since Italy has already reached and continues to improve its post-adoption support system,which has become mandatory by law,best practices from Italy such as stressing post-adoption service in the adoption law,providing training to local social workers and aligning different stakeholders,can provide suggestions for the further development of an adequate post-adoption support service in Shanghai and in China.