Adoption reunion and the experience of the adoptive parents : an exploratory study

Adoption policy, practice and law are undergoing rapid change in British Columbia. One of the recent changes has been the establishment of an adoption reunion registry allowing birth parents and adoptees to become reacquainted. Studies of adoption reunion have focused primarily on the experience from the perspective of the adoptee or birth parent. There has been little attention given, to date, to the adoptive parents' experiences when their son or daughter has reunited with a birth parent. At the same time, there have been many assumptions made regarding adoptive parents' reactions to adoption reunion. This exploratory study was intended to examine the positive and negative experiences of adoptive parents, whose adult son or daughter had recently reunited with his/her birth parent(s). However, only adoptive parents who were supportive of the reunion came forward to be interviewed. Seven sets of adoptive parents, recruited through the Adoption Reunion registry, were interviewed and a qualitative design was used to identify commonalities in the experiences of these adoptive parents. The adoptive parents demonstrated an open attitude to adoption through their family legends, their willingness to extend their definition of family, and their recognition of their son/daughter's multiple belonging. Of particular interest in the findings is a developmental component, which suggests that the experience of reunion varies for adoptive parents depending on their developmental stage and that of their adult child.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Social Work - MSW

Level thesis:degree_level

master's

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Social Work

Grantor dc:publisher

University of British Columbia

Year dc:date

1993

Author dc:creator

• Travers, Annemarie Gerarda

Statement dc:rights

• For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.

Language dc:language

eng

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/1510

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/1510