The results offer insights to adoption professionals with a view to enhancing the quality of prospective adoptive parents’ preparation before child placement.įor hundreds of adoptable African babies in South Africa, their right to be permanently raised in a loving family environment is not being realised because there are an inadequate number of adopters. The thematic analysis highlighted prospective adoptive parents’ expectations of more desirable qualities of children and underestimation of the difficulties they may encounter during the adoptees’ adjustment process. This article investigates the expectations concerning adoptive parenting in a group of 60 Italian prospective adoptive parents who completed an open-ended questionnaire aimed at understanding their expectations regarding adoptable children and their wishes and fears about adoptive parenting. Despite the importance of prospective adoptive parents’ expectations for the positive outcomes of adoption, few studies have examined the expectations of couples awaiting adoption. Pre-adoption preparation has been considered a predictor of positive outcomes both for parents and children, while unrealistic expectations towards adoptive parenthood are related to difficulties in facing the adoptive parenting process, especially those that may arise from the child’s emotional, psychological and behavioural problems. Prospective adoptive parents need to develop adequate knowledge of adoptive parenthood and adoptable children before child placement. This article argues that more consideration needs to be given to the needs of and support for approved adopters whilst they wait for an adoptive child. Online posts discussed the perceived over-recruitment of adopters the decision-making behind adopters' initial preferences and the negative emotional effects of the waiting period following approval. This article reports on a digital ethnographic research project, which used unobtrusive methods to conduct a thematic analysis of over 600 posts made by waiting adopters on publically available UK online adoption forums in 2015. In this article, the experiences of approved and waiting adopters are at the centre. Where research has included adopters, focus tends to be on how adopters can aid an adoptive placement and what support they can provide to an adoptive child.
However, although much research has children at the focus, little research has been conducted into the experiences of approved and waiting adopters. There is a significant amount of existing research exploring adoption policies, processes, and the experiences and safeguarding of children.
0 kommentar(er)
