Birth Parents in Adoption

Mary O’Leary Wiley · Amanda L. Baden

77 citations0/0 files storedThe Counseling Psychologist

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Child Welfare and Adoption Family Dynamics and Relationships Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health

Abstract

This article addresses birth parents in the adoption triad by reviewing and integrating both the clinical and empirical literature from a number of professional disciplines with practice case studies. This review includes literature on the decision to relinquish one’s child for adoption, the early postrelinquishment period, and the effects throughout the lifespan on birth parents. Clinical symptoms for birth parents include unresolved grief, isolation, difficulty with future relationships, and trauma. Some recent research has found that some birth mothers who relinquish tend to fare comparably to those who do not relinquish on external criteria of well-being (e.g., high school graduation rates). However, there appear to be serious long-term psychological consequences of relinquishment. Limitations of the current literature are presented, and recommendations for practice and research are offered.

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References

1962Memories, Dreams, Reflections 2003Guidelines on multicultural education, training, research, practice, and organizational change for Psychologists.1963Memories, Dreams, Reflections 2003The Transracial Adoption Paradox 1987Adjustment to adoption: A psychosocial perspective 1990The Psychology of adoption 1990A Stress and Coping Model of Adoption Adjustment 1996Family connections

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2007Evolution and resolution: Birthmothers' experience of grief and loss at different levels of adoption openness 2015‘It felt like it was night all the time’: listening to the experiences of birth mothers whose children have been taken into care or adopted 2007Counseling Adopted Persons in Adulthood 2011Does the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption Adequately Protect Orphaned and Vulnerable Children and Their Families?2012“Birth Mothers Are Not Bad People”2013International Adoption: Counseling and the Adoption Triad

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