Transcript ResearchSeminar_November17_AnneMarie

The social construction
of the adoptive
relationship
Parental experiences of adopting older children
abroad
Anne-Marie Piché, s.w, m.s.w, Doctoral
candidate McGill School of social work
Professeure, École de Travail Social
UQÀM
Centre for research on children and
families, November 17th 2010
Problem
 Creating a significant relationship with older adopted
children
 How ‘old’?
 How complex= family building experience
 Transformation of adoption practices
 Exploring the emergence of the relationship with
parental experience=process
Methodology
 Constructivist grounded theory approach (Charmaz,
2008)
 Method and sample
 Data collection process: evolutive and retrospective
 Exploring the evolution of parent-child relationship postadoption from parent’s perceptions
 Analysis strategy
 Limits
Data collection
Evolutive
Group
Adoptive
Parents
(12)
5 mothers
Adopted
Children
(29)
Interviews completed
Interviews
total
6 children
(Boys)
3 X/post-adoption
1)2-6 months
26-51 y. old
5-11 months
"Toute une série de gestes
sont 10-21
faits pour
créer
14-32 qui
mo.(age
months
@ adoption)
child is 17-24
l’attachement, la sécurité,
le confortT1=
de
l’enfant. (…)
months old
Nous
on l’a
20 parental
interviews
intellectualisé parce que ce lien là on l’aura pas créé avec
Retrospective
2 mothers
9 children
1X/ 2 years+ postl’enfant, ou il1ne
l’a pas(Girls)
quand il arrive
parce qu’il est déjà a trois
Group
father
adoption
(2 yrs. post +)
mo.
ans et demie. (…) Puis12-54
euh...toute
la question de la psychologie
37-44 y. old (age @
T1= child is 30 mo.-6
adoption)
yrs
oldça. Moi je parlais de
de comment on crée l’attachement,
tout
l’attachement4 mothers
à mes amis
qui ont eu1-2
des
enfants, bio,
Theoretical
14 children
X/post-adoption
1 faits 'à la
sampling Group
6 mo-12 years year after+
main' puis toute
la
patente,
ben ils comprenaient rien de ça."
32-51 y. old (age @
adoption)
Countries of Origin: China-Haïti-Russia-Cambodia-Vietnam-Mexico
Gender: 18 girls/ 10 boys total.
4
Analysing the adoptive
experience in context
 Adoptive family building as a process
in time: normality interrupted
 Renunciations and re-evaluations
 The active construction of a normal
parent-child relationship- a labor of
love.
"Toute une série de gestes qui sont faits pour créer
l’attachement, la sécurité, le confort de l’enfant. (…) Nous on l’a
intellectualisé parce que ce lien là on l’aura pas créé avec
l’enfant, ou il ne l’a pas quand il arrive parce qu’il est déjà a trois
ans et demie. (…) Puis euh...toute la question de la psychologie
de comment on crée l’attachement, tout ça. Moi je parlais de
l’attachement à mes amis qui ont eu des enfants, bio, faits 'à la
main' puis toute la patente, ben ils comprenaient rien de ça."
6
Transition period: the start of
family life
 Creating mutual recognition
Signs of normality, signs of trust:
indicators of bonding.
Self as parent; self as child
therapist
The importance of mutual
recognition.
 Being idealized as 'exceptionnal’
parents.
7
"Jusqu'où on va : c’est la question
perpétuelle. (...) Où le soignant arrête, pour
être le parent? (...) Je pensais que c’était
indissociable."
(Participante)
8
Social construction of the
adoptive relationship
 Prescribing attachment
 Psychological value of children, parent-child
relationships and early prevention.
 Impact of specialized knowledge over parental
experience and meaning-making
 Implications for intervention and other resources
 Implications for research in adoption.
Towards a contextualised understanding of
the adoptive relationship
 Applicability of attachment theory still a challenge with
older children/high adversity/context of adoption
 Research: outcome and process
 Specialized knowledge: a hierarchy of credibility?
 Questioning biocentric or ‘standardized’ views of the
healthy parent-child relationship
 Recognition and support of differently formed bonds;
adoptive families strengths.