The research by the University of Bristol, that involved analysis of local authority records as well as interviews with nearly 400 adoptive parents, is thought to be the first to assess the reasons for adoptions breaking down.
The local authority data put the breakdown rate at 3.4 per cent over a 12-year period, but the report said this was likely to be an underestimate. The survey of adoptive parents found that around nine per cent of adoption placements break down before the child reaches 18.
The report found that adoption placements are 10 times more likely to break down in the teenage years, compared with children under the age of four, with violence towards parents and siblings given as the main reason (in 80 per cent of cases) why adoptees had left home.
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