Adapter, Adoptive, and Birth Relatives in New Concept of Kinship - Literature review Example

Understanding research Adopting a child has been a social phenomenon since ages but it acquired different perspective lately when the birth parents where also made available to the adoptive child. In UK and in USA there were many protests against open adoption but it was eventually accepted as it showed many solutions that helped in smoothing out the relation between the adopted individual and his new household. The paper will try to explain a new concept of kinship by establishing the relationship between an adopter, the adoptive and the birth relatives. Introduction Background The adoption process has seen many changes in the recent times. In USA and UK the process of traditional adoption process is giving way to the newly formed open adoption process. Open adoption is now becoming popular as it gives an opportunity for the homeless child to find a home simultaneously being connected with the birth parents. In open adoption the adopted child gets to communicate with his adoptive parents as well as his birth relatives. As will be proved in the later sections of the paper, the interactions help in the social growth of the child or the young adult. There is some resentment about this open adoption process with some of the adoptee parents believing it to be interference in their upbringing. But majority of the parents felt that it gave the child or the young person a freedom to express himself freely in the new environment. The following paper will attempt to understand the different situations that arise in the process of open adoption and the consequences as seen in the adoptive parents, the adopted child and the birth relatives following the adoption. Aims and objectives In this paper the aim will be to highlight the features of a qualitative research using the concept of kinship that is developed between the adopters, the adoptees and their birth relatives. Objectives: 1. To study the concept of open adoption. 2. To examine the relationship between the adopters, adoptees and the birth parents. 3. To study the factors that lead to healthy kinship between them. 4. To examine if the participants were biased in their responses. Literature review Many changes have taken place in the last few decades over the form of kinship that is developed between an adopted child and his adoptive parents as well as his birth relatives. This has changes the traditional model replacing it with openness for the child to be connected with both the families (Jones & Hackett, 2012, p.284). It is regarded to be more of a psychological adjustment (Jones & Hackett, 2012, p.284). There are many literatures available on the different concepts that can be seen in these types of situations. In the journal article “Post-adoption Face-to-face Contact with Birth Parents: Prospective Adopters’ Views” by Selina Turkington & Brian J. Taylor it has been stated that the concept of single mother hood has changed in UK in recent times and there are less cases where the child is relinquished (Turkington & Taylor, 2009, p.22). Regular contact between the adopted child and his birth parents enables the family to understand about his needs and helps the child to know his birth family in a better way that helps in building his self concept (Turkington & Taylor, 2009, p.23). In another journal article “ADOPTION WITH AN OPEN DOOR FOR BIRTH PARENTS” it has been mentioned that by allowing open adoption the adoptive family can restore faith and confidence in the adoptive child who could feel isolated in the new environment. The article suggested that open adoption would be the best way to keep away emotional disturbances in the children (Baldauf, 1998). The article “Adoption with contact: a study of adoptive parents and the impact of continuing contact with families of origin” by Margaret Skyes stated that the adoptive parents often suffered from the problems of “role handicap” (Sykes, 2001, p.298). Also, adoption with a regular open contact with the birth parents was not accepted in the UK initially. They argued that open adoption would lead to double interferences in building up the child (Sykes, 2001, p.298). These ideas were challenged when it was stated that the younger children seemed to bond well with the adoptive parents when they were allowed to communicate with their birth parents (Sykes, 2001, p.299). The article “Adolescents Satisfaction with Contact in Adoption” by Tai J. Mendenhall et al, stated that the adolescents who had more contact with their birth mothers were more comfortable in their new relations (Mendenhall, et al, 2004, p.187). From the study of the literature review it can be concluded that open adoption does make an impact on the relationship between all the three entities. Methodology Social research can be defined as a systematic observation or a collection of information to find a pattern for making some decisions (Alston, 2003, p.6). Qualitative research also gives the researcher a chance to develop proximity with his participants (Cote & Turgeon, 2005, p. 72). There are no definite forms of methods that can be practiced exclusively in qualitative research. It can use many forms of analysis such as semiotics, narrative, phonemic etc (Denzin& Lincoln, 2005, p.6). In a qualitative research the data collected is mainly by interviews. The sample collected does not have any fixed rule for its collection (Greenhalgh, 1997, p.6). The triangulation method can also be used by the researcher where the quantitative and the qualitative research methods can be mixed (Olsen, 2004, p.3). Another aspect of social research is that it must be educative in nature (Cohen & Lawrence, 2007, p.7). In social research, reading forms an important component as it helps to provide interesting examples from the literature available (Wysocki, 2007, p.xi). Social research can also make use of visual study such as by using videography to gather data (Jupp, 2006, p.317). Before starting off a social research it is important to understand the studies that would be required for it. It begins with the research design and continues with its available literature (Babbie, 2012, p.498). In social research the subject or topic under study decides on the research methods to be followed (Seale, 2004, p.250). The writing in social research papers needs to be communicative more than impressive (Babbie, 2012, p. 519). Social researchers need to clearly balance the factors arising from the managing issues in informed consent (Pequegnat, et al., 2010, p.160). While conducting data analysis in social research participant observation can also be considered (Bryman, 2012, p. xxxiv). In this research paper, a couple of 12 adoptive parents were studied to gather their view points. The couples were all white parents and were adopting for the first time. The adopted children ranged from 5 years to twenty years. The respondents’ were asked to participate in the process through invitations. The data base of the respondents was collected from the municipality corporation body. The interview was conducted for one and half hour each. Video cameras were used to record their responses in some questions. The participants were given some family photographs and asked to talk about it. They were asked to narrate their communication with the adopted child from the first day of adoption till date. There were some questions where the participants had to rank their preferred choice with 5 being the most preferred choice and decreasing to one. The interviews led to much information some of which were in the form of a narrative story and some where quantified. This quantified information was then studied using thematic mode of analysis. Thematic maps were constructed to create linkages between the abstract and the concrete information. While collecting the data care was taken to not ask any question to the adopter that would make him/her uncomfortable. While framing questions the interviewer had to be conscious about not asking too personal questions. Findings It was found that the adoptive parents faced less trouble when their adoptive children were given the freedom to communicate with their birth parents specially the mother. The children were freer in their dealing with the new atmosphere. There were some instances where they stated that miscommunications often seemed to creep in their open adoption process. But overall, the open adoption scheme seemed to be successful with the three groups. It also gave the birth parents to keep an eye on the well being of their children and the adoptive parents getting a better knowledge of the upbringing of the child especially the adolescent. Apart from these, there were also some parents who were very concerned about the increasing closeness of the adopted child with his/her birth parents. They were anxious about the intimacy levels between them. The adopters gave descriptions of the different ways of communication between them such as over the phone, sending gifts and letters. There was some fragility seen in the adoptive parents too. They believed that as the child was put in their care they should be closer to the child than the birth parents while on the other hand some adoptive parents were of the view that letting the child to be closer with his birth relatives gave him the stability and the confidence to mix with the new household. It was also found that some of the adopters were biased towards the child or the birth relative. This could be because of the closeness or the similarity in their appearances which compelled the adopter to give biased responses. Limitations As the study was a qualitative research work majority of the emphasis was placed on the respondents given by the participants. As such there were some limitations. Firstly, it cannot be said that the responses that were given were free of biases. There could be areas where the response was given to make the adopter look good and friendly. Chances could also be that the respondents were not willing to share their true information about open adoption or their attitude towards the birth parents. There could also be some biases going by the physical traits of the adopted child inherited from the birth parents. Discussion There were many insights drawn from the case study. Adopters’ accounts had confirmed to some extent the inappropriateness observed in the single mode of adoption. Rather, they suggested that various types of relationships are possible following adoption. At the same time, the information provided by the adopters highlighted the fragility in relationships between the children and their birth relatives and the ambiguous relationship status of the birth relatives within the new family environment. Regarding the methodology section, both qualitative and quantitative techniques were used. The data collected from the qualitative study led to the thematic mapping which helped to draw the relations between many latent facts. These relations helped to understand that leaving the choice on the child to be with his birth parents could not guarantee harmony always. Conclusion In the paper, the kinship established between the adoptive parents and the adoptees seemed to be influenced by the birth parents. The paper addresses the main research question by examining the literature with the interview process. It is observed that children normally felt comfortable when they were allowed to mix with their birth relatives. It made the more confident about their self status and about who they were actually. The adoptive parents too found it easy to develop bonds with the “new children”. Open adoption can also have a social aspect. It can foster more opportunities for a single parent specially a single mother. Open adoption would help to develop the bonds of kinship beyond the biological bonds of a parent and a child. The qualitative researcher needs to be more compassionate while dealing with the adopters. They need to try measures to remove any form of prejudice that often made them to present false or half hearted responses. The conclusion presented in the literature reviews show that there are some parity between the available literature and the findings from the responses of the participants. As literature suggested that increasing the interaction between the child and his birth parent could improve his relation with the adopter parents so were the findings which showed similar results. This proved the validity of the findings. The other aspects of qualitative research such as methodology were also demonstrated in the paper properly. Recommendations The concept of open adoption needs to have to more generalized outlook. Social activists can play a major role here by promoting open adoption and organizing meetings to make the people more aware about it. They can also help in improving kinship between the adopters and the birth relatives by smoothing the point of discordant. References Alston, M. (2003). Research for Social Workers: An Introduction to Methods. Taylor & Francis Babbie, E. R. (2012). The Practice of Social Research. Cengage Learning Bryman, A. (2012). Social Research Methods.OUP Oxford Baldauf, S. (1998). Adoption With an Open Door for Birth Parents. Christian Science Monitor, 90 (229) Cohen/Lawrence. (2007). Research Methods in Education. Routledge Denzin, N.K. and Lincoln, Y.S. (Eds.) (2005) The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research. 3rd Ed., Thousand Oaks California: Sage publications  Greenhalgh, T. (1997) How to read a paper: Papers that go beyond numbers (qualitative research). British Medical Journal, 315, (7110) Jupp, V. (2006). The SAGE Dictionary of Social Research Methods. Sage Publications Ltd  Jones, C. and Hackett, S. (2012) The Role of Family Practices and Display of Family in the Creation of Adoptive Kinship. British Journal of Social Work, Vol. 41, 40-56 Olsen, W.K. (2004) Triangulation in Social Research: Qualitative and Quantitative can it really be mixed: ‘In Developments in Sociology, (Eds). Holborn, M. and Haralambos, M. (2004), Ormskirk: Causeway Press Pequegnat, W. (2010). How to Write a Successful Research Grant Application: A Guide for ... Springer Sykes, M.R. (2001). Adoption with contact: a study of adoptive parents and the impact of continuing contact with families of origin. Journal of Family Therapy, 23(3) Seale, C. (2004). Social Research Methods: A Reader. Routledge Turkington, S. & Taylor, B., J. (2009). Face-to-face Contact with Birth Parents: Prospective Adopters’ Views Post-adoption. Child Care in Practice, 15(1), 21-38 Wysocki, D., K. (2007). Readings in Social Research Methods. Wadsworth Publishing Read More