Parenting concepts and experiences of adults abandoned as infants

Abstract

ABSTRACT Parental concepts are crucial in understanding family, relationships and psychological functioning of parents. How these evolve and manifest may vary according to family and personal experience. This study of adults who were abandoned as infants explores three perspectives—their concepts of their biological parents who have abandoned them, their concepts of their adoptive parents who have raised them and finally their concepts of themselves as parents on the birth of their own children. Qualitative interviews with 16 adult survivors of infant abandonment were conducted and thematically analysed to explore parenting. The interviews revealed that although some justified and felt forgiveness for their biological mothers, others sustained feelings of anger and resentment. Participants reported a desire for further knowledge regarding their biological mother, with some reporting a desire for a reunion and others highlighting concerns regarding their genetic health. The majority had no views or thoughts on their biological father. Relationships with adoptive parents were mixed—some were supportive and loved yet others were distant and troubled. For most who had children of their own, such births represented the first moment of true biological and genetic continuity and were reported as precious. Others, however, were challenged or avoided parenting altogether. This study is the one of the first steps to understanding the long-term effects of abandoned infants in terms of the parenting they receive and the intergenerational effects on the parenting they provide in turn to the next generation. Such insight should inform parenting preparation for adoptive parents in the case of those abandoned and subsequently adopted as well as support for survivors of infant abandonment when they reach adulthood and become parents themselves.