Comparison of adoptees’ and nonadoptees’ experience of parenthood and mediating role of dyadic coping

Abstract

As most adoption studies have focused on adopted children and their vulnerability, with scant research on adult adoptees’ outcomes, the aim of the present study was to compare adult adoptees and nonadoptees on their experiences as parents and to explore more deeply the question of the role among adoptees of the conjugal relationship in the context of parenthood. A total of 268 adoptees matched one to one with 268 nonadoptees responded to several standardized scales (attachment, mental health, resilience, motivations for parenthood, parental stress, dyadic coping, and coparenting). The groups did not differ on the experience of parenthood, thus contradicting most previous studies. They did, however, differ on attachment, mental health and dyadic coping, with adoptees achieving lower scores. Only in the case of adoptees was dyadic coping found to have a mediating role on the relations between psychological characteristics and parental stress. Thanks to our efforts to make our samples as representative as possible, this study sheds new light on adoptees’ experience of parenthood, especially after the birth of their first child. Moreover, it presents adoptees from the perspective of resilience and offers new insights into their functioning as parents. It opens up both theoretical and clinical perspectives.

Psychological profiles of adoptees’ partners and their representations of the marital relationship

“…The partner’s attachment style seems to play a particularly determining role as well. This result is also in line with the observations of Despax, Bouteyre and Guiller (2020) who showed that among adoptees dyadic coping had a mediating role in predicting parental stress. Even if the results of our compared correlations should be replicated, these results underline the importance of relational variables as a risk or protective factor for this population.…”

“…This result is in line with the meta-analysis carried out by DeLuca Bishop, Claxton and van Dulmen (2019) who concluded that, overall, adoptees were just as committed and well-adjusted in their romantic relationships as non-adoptees. These results are also particularly interesting insofar as they partly refute those obtained by Despax, Bouteyre and Guiller (2020) who observed that adoptees had lower dyadic coping scores than non-adoptees. Different results are obtained on the same measure depending on the perspective considered (that of the adopted partner or that of the non-adopted one).…”

“…This raises the question of the specificity of this stage of life for adoptees. Becoming a parent frequently triggers a resurgence of past emotions relating to relinquishment and adoption and raises anxieties about one’s parenting capacity (Despax and Bouteyre, 2019; Despax, Bouteyre and Guiller, 2020; Field and Pond, 2018). These upheavals upon becoming parents may influence both subsequent parenting behaviour and the co-parenting relationship.…”

Refusal versus massive investment: Qualitative study of parenthood among adopted adults in France

“…also lead nonadopted adults to express similar specific attitudes toward parenthood. These similarities may explain why no differences have been observed at the quantitative level between adoptees and nonadoptees on certain variables related to the experience of parenthood (Despax et al, 2020). Other determinants, however, seemed to be specifically linked to their adoption history, showing that this population deserves particular attention from researchers studying parenthood.…”

“…Studying these two extreme attitudes toward parenthood among adoptees would allow us to gain a better understanding of the potential effects of adoption on adoptees' desire to start a family and to think about the keys to helping adoptees who regard parenthood as a source of distress. While adoptees do not differ from nonadoptees on a number of variables related to parenthood (Despax et al, 2020), it is relevant to focus on individuals whose adoption seems to have a real impact on their parenthood. This study also contributes more broadly to the field of research on the long-term outcomes of people who have experienced adversity in childhood.…”