“Forever Kind of Wondering”: Communicatively Managing Uncertainty in Adoptive Families

Abstract

This study explores the ways in which adoptees experience and manage uncertainty about their adoptive status. Grounded in the interpretive paradigm, the researchers conducted interviews with 25 adopted adults. We determined that the adoptees in this study experienced uncertainty about what their adoption means, details about their birth parents, and their adoptive parents' feelings about the birth parents. Individuals we interviewed were unmotivated, apprehensive, or unable to reduce their uncertainty. Participants reported that their adoptive parents helped them manage uncertainty by discussing the adoption story with adoptees, empowering adoptees to confront their uncertainty, and normalizing the adoption within their family. The findings of the current study extend researchers' understanding of the adoptee experience and of the communicative role of the adoptive parent.

A version of this paper was presented at the National Communication Association conference in Chicago, Illinois in November 2009. The authors would like to thank Dr. Dawn O. Braithwaite for her valuable guidance in the conceptualization and completion of this project as well as the anonymous reviewers for their helpful insights during the revision process.