ABSTRACT
The fact that adoption records may be opened by court decree to enable adoptees to have access to identifying information about their birth parents makes it incumbent upon those concerned with adoption practices to study the impact of this on adoptees, adoptive parents, birth parents, and professional practice. This paper reports on research addressed to the attitudes and feelings of birth parents years after they relinquished babies for adoption.
Subject(s)
Adoption , Attitude , Infant, Newborn , Parents , Confidentiality , Fathers , Female , Humans , Illegitimacy , Infant , Male , Mothers , Motivation , Parent-Child Relations , RecordsSubject(s)
Adoption , Group Processes , Parent-Child Relations , Psychology, Adolescent , Adolescent , Adult , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , PregnancyABSTRACT
The authors found that 40 of 50 adult adoptees who had reunions with their birth parents found the experience satisfying. Only 10% of the birth parents reacted adversely, although negative response were somewhat more common among the adoptive parents. These findings confirm the author's belief that adoption practices, which in all but 4 states include permanent sealing of birth records, should be changed to recognize the life-long nature of adoption. Their recommendations include opening the records for adult adoptees, creation of agencies to be available to provide assistance and counseling for all involved (adoptees, their adoptive parents, and birth parents), and consideration of new adoption methods that would not require biological parents to forever relinquish their child and all knowledge of him/her at adoption.
Subject(s)
Adoption , Jurisprudence , Parent-Child Relations , Adult , Aged , Confidentiality , Female , Humans , Male , Middle AgedSubject(s)
Marriage , Parents , Adoption , Attitude , Communication , Counseling , Female , Humans , Illegitimacy , Jurisprudence , Legislation as Topic , Male , Social Work , United StatesABSTRACT
An increasing number of adult adoptees are insisting that they have a constitutionally based civil right to have access to their "sealed" birth records which would reveal the true identity of their natural parents. This study investigated the outcome of 11 cases of reunion between adoptees and birth mothers. The majority felt that they had personally benefitted from the reunion even though in some of the cases the adoptees were disillusioned and disappointed in their birth relatives. There are many reasons why an adoptee feels a need to search for more information on his birth parents or to seek out a reunion; in many cases, the true purpose remains unconscious. It would appear that very few adoptees are provided with enough background information to be incorporated into their developing ego and sense of identity. Feelings of genealogical bewilderment cannot be discounted as occurring only in maladjusted or emotionally disturbed individuals.
