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An overview of developmental issues in counselling adoptive families

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2016

Juliet Harper
Juliet Harper*
Affiliation:
Macquarie University
*
School of Behavioural Sciences, Macquarie University, SYDNEY NSW 2109
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Extract

Adoption as a social phenomenon has always given rise to emotional controversy and the over-representation of adopted children at clinics and mental heath facilities has lead to studies which have focussed on the concept of psychological risk associated with adoption. Referral for assistance requires that counsellors and therapists appreciate the unique circumstances and vulnerabilities of adoptive families and are able to differentiate between normal transitional crises and adoption issues. To this end an overview of adoption concerns and, in particular, a developmental approach to adoption, is presented as a guide for those health professionals working with adoptive families.

Adoption has provided a fertile area of investigation into family attachment and functioning, and in particular the relative impact of nurture versus nature in human growth and development, although the secrecy surrounding adoption and the sensitivity of the process has created methodological problems and made it difficult to conduct representative large-scale studies. A re-occurring question has been whether the process of adoption itself is a stressor which predisposes adoptive families to psychological distress and maladjustment, and if so how does this manifest itself?

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Psychologists and Counsellors in Schools , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , November 1996 , pp. 125 - 132
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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References

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