The Transition into Adoptive Parenthood - Adoption as a process of continued unsafe uncertainty when

Our study investigated couples’ expectations of adoptive parenthood and explored how these changed with their actual experience of parenthood. Six heterosexual couples were interviewed just before their children were placed and re-interviewed six months after their children had arrived. We examined what couples said on both occasions using a qualitative analyses technique (Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis). All the couples that we interviewed had adopted their children from the statutory care system in the UK.

Expectations of long-awaited adoptive parenthood mostly transformed smoothly into actual parenthood and a new feeling of contented fulfilment was evident to some extent in all post-adoption interviews. Furthermore, some pre-adoption concerns, such as coming to parenthood later than expected, did not surface in post-adoption interviews. Nevertheless, couples did find parenting challenging when their expectations of family life (e.g., in making a fresh start) came up against their newly adopted children’s patterns of relating, leaving couples feeling unprepared for parenting. Six months into the placement these collisions of differing family scripts seemed still to be a problem for couples adopting sibling pairs and sometimes feelings of unsafe uncertainty continued to pop up in these newly formed family systems. A further longer term study is needed to examine a wider group of families and to consider risk and resilience in a variety of areas.

To further professional practice in working with families over the transition to adoptive parenting we suggest that professionals keep in mind a framework that includes: Internal and external world influences on family members, Intergenerational issues, Family scripts, and the Structural challenges of adoption (IIFS). We would recommend that where possible adoption services provide additional support workshops – both pre- and post- adoption – open to adoptive parents and their relatives too.

Source: Fiona Tasker & Sally Wood (in press 2016) The transition into adoptive parenthood: Adoption as a process of continued unsafe uncertainty when family scripts collide. Clinical Child Psychology & Psychiatry. DOI: 10.1177/1359104516638911

Dr. Sally Wood is an independent consultant family therapist working both at Coram and the Anna Freud Centre and is an honorary independent clinical consultant to the Empowering Adoptive Families project at Birkbeck University of London.