APA Dictionary of Psychology

n. the legal process by which an infant or child is permanently placed with a family other than their birth family. An adoption may be private, in which a birth parent voluntarily plans for the placement of the child with adoptive parents through intermediaries, or public, in which a child removed from their birth parent(s) because of neglect or abuse is placed with adoptive parents through public child welfare agencies. Adoptions may also be closed, allowing no contact between the birth and adoptive parents, or open, permitting varying degrees of pre- and postplacement contact and making possible a relationship between all three parties.