1. Why and how do parents decide to adopt? A study on motivations and the decision‐making process in becoming an adoptive family.
- Author
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Soares, Joana, Ralha, Sara, Fonseca, Sílvia Monteiro, Prego, Joana, and Barbosa‐Ducharne, Maria A.
- Subjects
ADOPTION & psychology ,PARENT attitudes ,RESEARCH ,FRIENDSHIP ,STATISTICS ,CHARITY ,CONFIDENCE intervals ,MOTIVATION (Psychology) ,RESEARCH methodology ,RETROSPECTIVE studies ,ACQUISITION of data ,INTERVIEWING ,ATTITUDES toward adoption ,PARENTHOOD ,PEARSON correlation (Statistics) ,INFERTILITY ,DECISION making ,MEDICAL records ,RESEARCH funding ,LONELINESS ,CHILD welfare ,DESCRIPTIVE statistics ,CHI-squared test ,PSYCHOLOGY of adoptive parents ,FAMILY relations ,DATA analysis software ,CONTENT analysis - Abstract
There are several motives underlying the process of deciding to become an adoptive family. However, research exploring this issue is scarce and essentially focused on infertility as the main motivation. The present mixed‐method study aims to fill in this gap by exploring, retrospectively, the motives to adopt of 126 Portuguese adoptive parents. The Parents' Interview on the Adoption Process was used to identify the motives to adopt and describe the adoption decision‐making process. Seven main motives (biological issues, filling in a void/loneliness, adoption as a life project, expanding the family, philanthropy, contact with the child protection system and parenthood) were identified. These motives can be centred on the self, the child or both simultaneously and are characterized by dynamism, permeability and interconnection. Findings allowed for establishing conceptual considerations on motivations to adopt and recommendations for adoption practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2023
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