Maintaining Open Adoption Relationships: Practitioner Insights on Adoptive Parents’ Regulation of Adoption Kinship Networks

Abstract

The present study explores practitioner perceptions of and observations about the adoptive parent, birth parent, and adoptee interactions that regulate open adoption relationships. Grounded in family systems theory, practitioner interviews (N = 19) were analyzed to understand the degree to which open adoption shapes the family system as well as the opportunities, challenges, and considerations experienced by individuals in open adoption. Findings reveal that open adoption relationships consist of numerous complex relationships. This complexity generates significant opportunities for connection. At the same time, the complexity of the system generates challenges. Social networking provides costs and rewards that require consideration on an individual basis. Findings offer implications for the utility of family systems theory in illuminating diverse family construction as well as open adoption communication research.

Keywords:

• adoptive parents
• diverse families
• family systems theory
• open adoption

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers as well as Dr. Debbie Dougherty for helpful comments on earlier versions of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the University of Missouri Research Council Grant.