Minding the (Information) Gap: What Do Emerging Adult Adoptees Want to Know About Their Birth Parents?

Abstract

The formation of an adoption information gap was examined for a group of 169 emerging adults (M= 25.0 years) who were adopted as infants. Participants completed interviews and questionnaires at adolescence and emerging adulthood (late teens to 20’s). The Adoption Curiosity Pathway model guided research questions about formation of an adoption information gap, which exists when there is a difference between what an adopted person knows and what he or she desires to know, regarding his or her adoption. In addition, specific issues were identified about which emerging adults were curious. Differences in these specific issues were examined across gender and openness arrangement with birth parents at emerging adulthood. The most frequently sought information was medical and health history. Logistic regression analyses revealed that the formation of an adoption information gap, which contains the specific items of curiosity, was more likely for those who were less satisfied with the amount of openness with birth parents during both adolescence and emerging adulthood. Implications for practice are presented.

Factors associated with behavioral adjustment among school-age children of gay and heterosexual single fathers through surrogacy.

“…In the current context, contact refers to any type of communication the child has with their gestational carrier and egg donor, including the exchange of cards, letters, pictures, gifts, and emails, as well as phone calls and face-to-face visits. Two theoretical models from adoption research (i.e., the adoption curiosity pathway [Wrobel & Dillon, 2009;Wrobel & Grotevant, 2019] and emotional distance regulation [Grotevant, 2009]) provide initial frameworks for understanding the associations between children's contact with their gestational carrier and/or egg donor and their behavioral adjustment in single-father families through surrogacy. Similar to adoptees, who seek to learn more about their adoptive background on the basis of the intensity of their adoption-related curiosity (Wrobel & Dillon, 2009), children of single fathers through surrogacy can be expected to examine what their surrogacy conception and family arrangement mean to them (and to others) as they develop a more realistic understanding of their origins.…”

The Emotional Nature of Birth Family Relationships for Care-experienced and Adopted Young People: A Longitudinal Perspective

“…Curiosity has been a widely explored concept within adoption research (e.g., Jones & Hackett, 2011; Wrobel & Grotevant, 2019), and some of the young people who expressed being curious in our study were indeed adopted, probably because they were more likely to have been given less information and had less direct contact with their birth families. Family resemblance is a way to show biological connections (Mason, 2008, cited in Welch, 2018), and it was a source of curiosity for Julie.…”

Review of benefits and risks for children in open adoption arrangements

“…The instruments used to assess and measure the different variables mostly took the form of interviews or questionnaires. However, five employed psychometric scales (Farr, Flood, & Grotevant, 2016; Grotevant & McRoy, 1997; Reppold & Hutz, 2009; Von Korff et al, 2006; Wrobel & Grotevant, 2018). The outcome variables considered were mainly satisfaction with and experiences of the post‐adoption contact, or the level of openness in adoption.…”

“…However, seven studies specifically examined behavioural and emotional problems in the adoptee (Agnich, Schueths, James, & Klibert, 2016; Farr et al, 2016; Grotevant et al, 2013; Grotevant, Rueter, Von Korff, & Gonzalez, 2011; Neil, 2009; Reppold & Hutz, 2009; Von Korff et al, 2006), and three reports explored identity formation (Del Pozo, Dunstan, & Kaltner, 2018; Luu, de Rosnay, Wright, & Tregeagle, 2018; Von Korff & Grotevant, 2011). Data about adoptive children were most commonly gathered from birth parents and adoptive parents, although in some studies, children and adolescents were also interviewed and assessed (Berge, Mendenhall, Wrobel, Grotevant, & McRoy, 2006; Farr et al, 2016; Farr, Grant‐Marsney, & Grotevant, 2014; Farr, Grant‐Marsney, Musante, Grotevant, & Wrobel, 2014; Greenhow et al, 2015; Grotevant & McRoy, 1997; Grotevant et al, 2013; Grotevant, Rueter, et al, 2011; Kohler, Grotevant, & McRoy, 2002; Luu et al, 2018; March, 1997; Reppold & Hutz, 2009; Von Korff & Grotevant, 2011; Wrobel & Grotevant, 2018). Consequently, the age of adoptees at the time of a given study ranged from childhood to adulthood (Tables 1 and 2).…”

“…These findings highlight the moderator role of post‐adoption contacts. In a recent longitudinal study of 169 adult adoptees, Wrobel and Grotevant (2018) explored the relationship between satisfaction with contact arrangements and the formation of an adoption information gap. Their results showed a significant negative association between these two variables, in that greater satisfaction with contact was related to a lower probability of such an information gap.…”