Adoptees' and Adopters’ Predictors of Adoption Communication Openness

• In Event: Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Topic - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Abstract

Adoption communication is a complex and dynamic process occurring in the context of the parent-child relationship. This topic has been receiving increased attention from adoption scholars and there is scientific evidence on the benefits of the openness parent-child adoption communication. The adoption communication process involves respect for the adopters’ and adoptees’ unique perspective and feelings about the adoption experience, and the development of parent-child emotional attunement. However, previous studies have focused on a single perspective – adopters’ or adoptees’ – of the adoption communication process. Furthermore, studies exploring the predictors of adoption communication openness are still scarce. The present study aims to explore the adoption communication process considering both adopters’ and adoptees’ perspectives and identify the predictors of an open and emotionally attuned adoption communication pattern in the adoptive family, considering variables related to the child and the parents.
One-hundred and three adopted children (59 boys), aged 8 to 10, and one of the adoptive parents participated in this study (75 mothers). Children were domestically adopted from the Portuguese Welfare System at the age of 3.21, on average. Data were collected at in-home visits, interviewing both adopters and adoptees. The Adopted Child’s Interview on Adoption was used to assess adoptees’ adoption related experiences (communication and feelings). The SSIS-RS (Gresham & Elliott, 2008) and the CCSC-R1 (Program for Prevention Research, 1991) were used to evaluate adoptees’ social competence and coping strategies, respectively. The Adoptive Parents’ Interview on the Adoption Process allowed for the assessment of the adopters’ perspective on adoption communication, easiness at decision-making about adoption and adoptive parenting, support from the extended family and fulfillment of expectations in relation to the adopted child.
A preliminary analysis of the parents’ and children’s perspectives on the adoption communication frequency, comfort, easiness and satisfaction with communication, feelings involved, the child’s curiosity and parents’ empathy for their children’s birth family allowed for the identification of two clusters of families according to the communication openness level and parent-child emotional attunement. Considering the membership of the more open and emotionally positive adoption communication cluster as the dependent variable, a logistic regression analysis was conducted using adoptee and adopter related variables as predictors. The final model (Table 1) was able to explain between 40% and 53.4% of variance. Overall, the model was able to correctly predict 76.5% of all the cases, with almost the same capacity for a more open and attuned communication (78.7%) and for a less open and less attuned communication (74.5%). Ten predictors were included in the model, using the Enter method. Five of these successfully predicted an open and emotionally attuned pattern of communication. Being early adopted, reporting a more positive adoption experience, resorting to more active coping strategies, showing less hyperactivity problems and having parents who perceived more support from their extended families increase the probability of belonging to a family with a more open and emotionally attuned adoption communication pattern. These findings allow for a deeper approach to adoption communication providing evidence to inform professional practices in adoption.

Authors

• Maria Acciaiuoli Bar Ducharne, University of Porto, Portugal
  Presenting Author

• Joana Lara Soares, University of Porto
  Non-Presenting Author