How adoption affects the experience of adult intimate relationships and parenthood: A systematic review.

Abstract

In the last two decades, researchers and clinicians have started exploring the wide range of lifelong impacts of adoption on adult adoptees. Several studies have suggested that adoptees may be at greater risk for insecure attachments than non-adopted people, thus contributing to difficulties in forming satisfying interpersonal relationships. The aim of this article is to systematically review the evidence about the nature and quality of adult adoptees' intimate relationships with their partners and children. After systematically searching most major article databases and "hand" searching major adoption journals, the review included 15 quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-method studies that fulfilled the selection criteria (domestically adopted adult participants over the age of 18; published and grey literature since 1997). Following data extraction and synthesis, themes emerged across the literature suggesting that being adopted is influential in intimate relationships for some adoptees, with complexities of attachment, anxiety, and ambivalence characterising their relationships with partners and experiences of parenting across the lifespan. Methodological and sampling limitations in the studies preclude application to adoptees generally but rich descriptive data provides useful insights for counsellors who may work therapeutically with this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of New Zealand Journal of Counselling is the property of New Zealand Association of Counsellors and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)