Abstract
Adoption communication openness (ACO) presents a common challenge in families. Three focus groups comprised of a total of 17 U.S. adoptive mothers were facilitated. Using a phenomenological approach, participants described their ACO experiences with their early adolescents (aged 10–14 years), which were thematically coded. Inductive analysis revealed the complexity rooted in being communicatively open. Four key themes emerged: a) the breadth and depth of this experience, b) the work entailed, c) the emotionality involved, and d) the grief and loss embedded in it. These results strengthen our understanding of the lived experiences of adoptive parents, magnifying the call for further research into what drives ACO and the need for consistent pre- and post-adoption services and clinical work.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 401-439 |
| Number of pages | 39 |
| Journal | Adoption Quarterly |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2026 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2024 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
Funding
This research was supported in part by the Kathryn Louise Chellgren Endowment, University of Kentucky. We would like to thank the participants for their willingness to share so candidly and emotionally about their personal experiences of parenting, in general, and adoption communication openness, in particular. Allison Goderweis Smith assisted with code-checking.
| Funders |
|---|
| University of Kentucky |
Keywords
- Adoptive parents
- adoption communication openness
- early adolescence
- grief and loss
- phenomenology
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Demography
- Sociology and Political Science
- Law
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