The 80/20 Factor

20120520-21-jorenerene.com
courtesy of jorenerene

Now that our profile is active, Don and I were given access to a new set of documents to help us prepare for a successful match. That’s where I found this:

“On average, American Adoptions matches are successful 80 percent of the time.”

That’s not bad. I mean, sure, 20 percent of the matches disrupt for one reason or another … but far more of them work out.

It did get me wondering about national averages.

And here’s why I love Google. Two second after first wondering about it, I found this information:

How many adoptions disrupt?

Individual studies of different populations throughout the United States are consistent in reporting disruption rates that range from about 10 to 25 percent—depending on the population studied, the duration of the study, and geographic or other factors (Goerge, Howard, Yu, & Radomsky, 1997; Festinger, 2002; Festinger, in press). A few examples are listed below:

Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Of course, a lot of this information is based on older child adoptions, not infant adoption … but it’s pretty interesting.