Adult adoptees as partners and parents: The joint task of revisiting of the adoption history

Adoption is unanimously considered a lifelong process, but adulthood and parenthood are life cycle stages that up to now have been explored only marginally in the adoption literature. The principal aim of the present study is two-fold: first, to analyse whether and how parenthood might lead the adult person who was adopted and his/her partner to reinterpret the origins, the adoption history and relationships with his/her adoptive parents; second, to verify whether the attitudes of the two partners concerning adoption are similar or complementary. Thirty-four couples consisting of one adopted and one non-adopted partner, now parents, were interviewed and a graphic instrument, the Double Moon Test, was administered. Results revealed that most couples showed a shared attitude in valorizing both the origin background and the adoptive family. However, in a number of cases a divergent position emerged, highlighting the crucial role of the non-adopted partner in encouraging and supporting the adoptee to revisit his/her adoption history. Overall, the practical relevance of the research findings to adopted persons and their families is discussed and future direction of research are suggested