Background

Media stories over the past decade have sensationalized cases of intercountry adoption discontinuity, a phenomenon largely missing from the research literature.

Objective

This study sought to understand how intercountry adoptees with adoption discontinuity histories experience legal, relational, and residential permanency losses through the framework of ambiguous loss and trauma.

Participants and setting

Twenty intercountry adoptees in the United States who experienced adoption discontinuity as minor children.

Methods

Participants were recruited through social media sites and professional and informal organizations serving intercountry adoptees.

Results

Participants described multiple experiences with legal, residential, and relational permanency losses often in multiple combinations, multiple times, and in multiple settings. Participants also experienced racial, ethnic and cultural identity losses in addition to their permanency ruptures.

Conclusion

More research on the lived experiences of intercountry adoptees with adoption discontinuity histories is needed. Adoptees experience trauma in their pre-adoptive histories as well as in the adoption process itself and need adoptive parents skilled in trauma-informed parenting. In addition, there is a need for robust trauma-informed support for adoptees throughout their lifetime.

中文翻译：

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“永远的家庭就像一个制造的标志性想法”：跨国收养者的收养不连续经历

背景

过去十年的媒体报道耸人听闻地报道了跨国收养不连续的案例，这种现象在研究文献中基本上没有出现。

客观的

本研究试图通过模棱两可的损失和创伤的框架来了解具有不连续收养历史的跨国收养者如何经历法律、关系和居住永久性损失。

参与者和设置

在美国，有 20 名跨国收养者在未成年时经历过收养中断。

方法

参与者是通过社交媒体网站以及为跨国收养者服务的专业和非正式组织招募的。

结果

参与者描述了法律、住宅和关系永久性损失的多种经历，通常是在多种组合、多次和多种环境中。除了永久性破裂外，参与者还经历了种族、民族和文化身份的丧失。

结论

需要对具有不连续收养历史的跨国收养者的生活经历进行更多研究。被收养者在收养前的历史以及收养过程中都经历过创伤，并且需要收养父母熟练掌握创伤知情育儿。此外，需要在被收养者的一生中提供强有力的创伤知情支持。