The Adopted Child Family Life with Double Parenthood [Paperback]

This exploration of the experiences of adopting parents and children offers unusual insight into adoption's complexity and its profound impact on family life. Based on the author's research in Germany, where she lived and taught, The Adopted Childhas a great deal to say about child rearing and identity, as well as offering insights into similarities and differences in family life and adoption in Germany and the United States.

Hoffmann-Reim takes the reader through the decision to adopt, the adoption placement procedure, and the transition from applicant to mother and father. She explores differences between emotions experienced in adopting a baby, a toddler, and an older child, and how these emotions can affect relations with the world outside the nuclear family. A central concern is secrecy and disclosure with regard to the adopted child's origins.

Based on case studies and extensive interviews, The Adopted Child has fascinated American readers as it did those in Germany. Professionals as well as those interested in adoption and family life in general will find it significant. Sociologists will find it solidly grounded in concepts and traditions from a diversity of related disciplines. And anyone interested in Germans and German society will find the materials revealing, and the author's interpretation insightful and wise.

Foreword
Preface
1. The Desire for a Child
We Wanted a Child
The Start of Marriage within the Framework of the Pattern of Normality
The Trajectory of Denormalization
The Decision to Adopt
Adoption as the Unquestioned Next Step
Doubts about the Decision to Adopt: Career as an Equivalent?
The Female as the Driving Force behind the Decision to Adopt
Adoption as the Second-Best Solution and Exceptions to the Rule
The Significance of Social Motives
Adoption in the Cal“x