Birthparent romances and identity formation in adopted children.

Abstract

Adopted children have two sets of parents as possible identification figures. The usually meager facts about the birthparents are shifted and embellished in response to ongoing developmental needs, and constitute a major contribution to identity formation. A description of this developmental course is offered, and implications of birthparent fantasies for the treatment of adopted persons are discussed.

Adoption, Family Ideology, and Social Stigma: Bias in Community Attitudes, Adoption Research, and Practice

“…Over two-thirds of the adoptees she interviewed thought that adoptive families are generally viewed as different and inferior to biological families, although they personally saw no difference (p. 656). Although no studies have systematically explored the impact of stigmatizing attitudes on adoptees' sense of self (commonly referred to as ''identity development''), at least one study characterized young adoptees as vulnerable to feeling ''different'' or ''bad'' due to the comments and actions of others (Rosenberg & Horner, 1991). Similar negative experiences have also been reported in adoptees' autobiographies (e.g.…”

Vietnamese Amerasians: The relationship between biological father, psychological distress, and self-destructive behavior

“…Research has shown that adoptees may simply reflect on their birth parents, want to know about them, desire direct access to them without explicit goals, or want a physical reunion (Day & Leeding, 1980;Sorosky, Baran, & Pannor, 1978). Associated themes to the adoptees' searches have been: (a) identity formation (Deeg, 1991;Lifton, 1994;Rosenberg & Horner, 1991) in an attempt to integrate one's identity; (b) loss and separation (Small, 1979;Sorosky et al, 1978), whereby there can be a reattachment to the lost object, the parent, that reverses the loss and facilitates healing; (c) a reunification of self and the primary object, the parent, (Stern, 1985) in an un-conscious attempt to match body image, type, and features, while gaining a sense of historical and genetic identity; (d) acquire a sense of belonging (Brodzinsky, Schechter, & Henig, 1992;Lifton, 1988); (e) in the case of international adoptees, a reconnection with a lost culture that is part of one's biological heritage; (f ) locus of control (Rotter, 1975;Strickland, 1989) whereby the adoptees internalized their perception of being able to regulate and manage their life; and (g) the need for biological constancy (Pannor, Sorosky, & Baran, 1974) so that there is a sense of evolutionary coherence. Lifton (1994) describes the lifetime search for self as being far more complicated for adoptees.…”

Human Behavioral Genetics, Scarr's Theory, and Her Views on Interventions: A Critical Review and Commentary on Their Implications for African American Children

“…This cognizance may well have fostered self-concepts affecting IQ test performance for the children with two biological parents who were African American to a greater degree than Scarr's other subjects because those children are likely to have resembled their adoptive parents least. Glinicians who study adopted children and their families (e.g., Rosenberg & Homer, 1991) report that adopted preschoolers who are aware that differences in physical appearance between themselves and their parents are attributable to their adoptive status are inclined to interpret their adoption as a disadvantage and feel diminished by it.…”

“…Frequently this leads adolescent adoptees to identification with biological parents and counteridentification with adoptive ' parents and biologically unrelated adopted siblings (Weider, 1977). Rosenberg and Homer (1991) give examples of cases in which identification with a biological parent figure in an adolescent adoptee's family romances leads to academic performance and career choices at variance with those of the adoptive parents. The centrality of adoption issues in these fantasy-behavior linkages makes it clear that environmental factors embodied in the sociocultural practice of adoption rather than genotype per se can plausibly account for the resemblance of adopted children and their biological parents detected and highlighted by Scarr.…”