I. Origins of project1. An increasing number of potential adopters are waiting for a childWith diffusion of medical contraception, legalisation of abortion, and change in society's attitude towards single mothers, number of unwanted births, and consequently number of children offered for adoption, has dropped significantly. Falling from 24,000 in 1977 to 7,600 in 1987, number of wards of state has stabilised at approximately 3,300 since 1997. As not all wards are eligible for adoption, only 1,195 had been placed in a family with a view to adoption at end of 2001. During same year, 461 wards of state were adopted. Started in Vietnam as a humanitarian gesture, international adoption developed from late 1970s onwards to compensate for lack of children offered for adoption in France. During last fifteen years, number of children adopted in foreign countries, though on rise, has remained lower than demand. Indeed, although number of intercountry adoptions rose from 2,000 to 4,000, number of approvals granted each year grew from 4,858 in 1987 to 7,918 in 2001. This approval is a real passport for adoption and has been compulsory since 1996 for all those wishing to adopt a ward of state or a foreign child. It aims to ensure that the conditions offered at family, educational and psychological levels correspond to needs and best interests of child(1). The approval is valid for five years and can be used only once to adopt one child or several children at same time. Parents wishing to adopt another child later must apply for a approval.2. Previous studiesa) Research projectsResearch into adoption gained momentum after creation of plenary adoption by law of 11 July 1966(2) to replace adoptive legitimisation, and later with expansion of international adoption which put adoption in limelight. A review of scientific literature brings out two main points.In France, dominant issue is filiation: its history, concept's diversity in traditional and contemporary societies, new family forms, and legislation (Heritier-Auge, 1989; Lallemand, 1993 ; Thery, 1998). Studies of potential adopters and of expectations about adoptive parenting are much less common (Rault, 1997). Apart from research on construction of identity and right to know one's origins (Fine et al., 1999), studies on adopted children remain preserve of psychologists and physicians or concern specific groups, and they do not claim that their findings can be generalized (Halifax, 2001). Research on families and children is more advanced in other European countries and in North America, in particular with work of Hjern, Lindblad and Vinnerljung in Sweden (Hjern et al., 2002) and of Ouellette in Quebec (Ouellette, 1996; Ouellette and Methot, 2000).The second point relates to abundance of collective works bringing together contributions of legal experts, anthropologists and ethnologists, sociologists and psychologists (Fine, 1998a and 1998b; Fine and Neirinck, 2000; Le Gall and Bettahar, 2001). They highlight importance of a multidisciplinary approach to adoption. Among social sciences, demography alone has shown little interest in adoption up to now, despite its particular predilection for family.b) Statistical dataFew statistics are available and they are often approximations. Most data from administrative sources are not produced annually, but every other year. They provide information on number of children adopted, number of adoptive parents and number of candidates who have been approved and are waiting for a child. On other hand, only a few surveys have dealt with adoption, and did not focus specifically on that topic.* Administrative sourcesData on potential adopters are very poor. The only available information comes from General Department of Social Services (DGAS -Direction generale de l'action sociale) at ministry responsible for family, which every two years generates departmental statistics on number of persons who were officially approved during year and on number with a currently valid approval. …