Résumés
Abstract
While research has explored birth parent grief and loss, it has not been thorough in exploring how the experience of having an open adoption affects birth parents’ grief and loss experience and resolution. Previous research has highlighted positive effects of open adoptions to date, but is quite limited in regards to the birth parents’ adjustment in current day, open adoptions. This descriptive, qualitative study explores birth parents’ experiences in current day, open adoptions and seeks to understand their experience of grief and loss and their movement towards grief resolution in the context of an open adoption. Findings of this study confirm that the experience of adoption placement involves grief and loss and that openness in adoption helps to mitigate this painful experience. Most notably, birth parents found meaning, comfort, and peace in knowing of their child’s well-being and by having ongoing involvement in the life of the child and adoptive family. This opens new avenues in thinking about adoption and the meanings participants make of it.
Keywords:
- adoption,
- openness,
- birth mothers,
- grief resolution
Résumé
Même si la recherche s’est penchée sur le deuil et la peine des parents biologiques, elle n’a pas approfondi l’effet d’une adoption ouverte sur leur douleur et leurs façons de composer avec celle-ci. Des recherches ont montré les effets positifs de l’adoption ouverte, mais elles ont peu abordé l’adaptation dont doivent faire preuve les parents biologiques ayant choisi l’adoption ouverte de nos jours. La présente étude descriptive et qualitative explore l’expérience vécue par les parents biologiques et cherche à comprendre leur deuil et leur peine ainsi que leurs façons de les surmonter. Les résultats montrent que la décision de confier un enfant à l’adoption s’accompagne d’un deuil et d’une peine, et qu’une ouverture permet d’atténuer la douleur d’une telle action. En particulier, les parents biologiques ont trouvé un réconfort à être au courant du bien-être de leur enfant et à garder contact avec celui-ci et sa famille adoptive. Cette étude ouvre de nouvelles perspectives au sujet de l’adoption et du sens que les participants lui donnent.
Mots-clés :
- adoption,
- ouverture,
- mères biologiques,
- surmonter le deuil
Parties annexes
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