Modeling Adoption Attitudes: Recalled Maternal Warmth, Affection for Children, and Parenting Motivation

Abstract

We tested a model for predicting adoption attitudes: that remembered parental warmth is associated with more positive attitudes toward adoption and that this relationship is mediated by motivation to parent and liking of children. One hundred and eighty-seven university students participated in the study. Controlling for participant gender and adoption experience, the model was supported for maternal warmth, but not for paternal warmth. Specifically, the relationship between recalled maternal warmth and more positive attitudes toward adoption was mediated positively by liking of children and negatively by motivation to parent. The results implicate both childhood experiences and contemporary motives and preferences in adoption attitudes.

KEYWORDS:

• adoption attitudes
• parenting attitudes
• parental warmth
• maternal warmth

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Saaniya Bedi, Aqdas Ahmed, and Laura Rundell for their help with this study.