October 2018
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In the decision making process for becoming an adoptive family, several underlying motivations can be found. Adoption literature has shown that parents’ adoption motivations can influence the adoption process itself and the parent-child relationship success. However, scarce research exploring the adoption-related motivations in depth has been developed. This study aims to tackle this gap by exploring motivations underlying the adoption project of 126 Portuguese adoptive parents. The parents’ motivations and adoption decision making process were analysed using the Adoption Process Interview in a mixed method study. Results allowed for the identification of seven general motivations to becoming an adoptive family. These motivations, characterized by dynamism, complexity, permeability and interconnection, were divided in two categories: hedonist and altruist. Hedonist motivations included biological issues (infertility, health risk, running out of options, biological unviability), filling in a void/loneliness (sharing, company and personal/couple fulfilment, death of a birth son/daughter), expanding the family and adoption as a life project. Altruist motivations included contact with the reality of child care and philanthropic ideas. Parenthood as a motivation (wanting to be a parent or having a son/daughter) was included in both categories. Findings also revealed that biological issues were the most frequent adoptive parents’ motivation, followed by parenthood. The contact with the reality of child care was the less frequently described motivation. These data bring new evidence for adoption literature/research and additional information to professional practice on adoption, by reinforcing the relevance of in depth analysis of parents’ motivations as a key factor/indicator of adoption success.