Over the past twenty years, a number of policy, legislative, and clinical changes have shaped the landscape of adoption in Quebec and will continue to do so in the years ahead. Although several studies have examined adoption in Quebec, primarily to better understand the realities and challenges associated with adoption through the foster-to-adopt program (Banque-mixte), most have been qualitative studies conducted with small samples and have focused primarily on the regional contexts of Montreal and Quebec City. To date, no province-wide study has provided a broader picture of the trajectories of children adopted domestically and their adoptive parents. The experiences of these children’s birth parents, as well as the extent to which available services meet the needs of adoptive families, also remain relatively understudied.

Against this backdrop, the Assistant Directorate General for Family, Childhood and Youth Services of Quebec’s Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS) funded a large-scale research project to provide a retrospective examination of adoption in Quebec, with particular attention to:

1. the profiles and trajectories of adopted children and their adoptive families and, to a lesser extent, their birth parents;

2. the challenges experienced by members of the adoption triad throughout the pre-adoption and post-adoption process; and

3. their needs with respect to access to services.

This research protocol therefore presents the research proposal developed by Geneviève Pagé, Doris Chateauneuf, and Patricia Germain.