Open AccessJournal Article
Anger Among Prospective Adoptive Parents: Structural Determinants and Management Strategies
TLDR
In this paper, the authors examined the source of infertile couples' anger by focusing on the structural power imbalance between infertiles and the physicians and adoption agency personnel to whom they turn for help in becoming parents.Abstract:
This paper focuses on anger experienced by prospective adoptive parents as they go through infertility and the formal adoption process. Qualitative interviews were done with seventy-four infertile couples who were at various stages in their consideration of adoption. Using a sociology of emotions perspective, I examine the source of their anger by focusing on the structural power imbalance between infertile couples and the physicians and adoption agency personnel to whom they turn for help in becoming parents. I analyze the way that this power unbalance constrains their anger and examine the way it is managed according to the "feeling rules" that then come into play. The implications of this anger for practice are discussed. The anger experienced by prospective adoptive parents as they go through infertility and the formal adoption process will be examined along two axes. First, the structural power imbalance between infertile couples and those who they turn to for help in becoming parents will be considered. Typically, couples turn to, and become dependent on, physicians for help in becoming biological parents; when that doesn't work they turn to, and become dependent on, adoption agency personnel in an effort to become adoptive parents. In both instances, their dependence on others results in a sense of powerlessness and feelings of anger. Second, the way that this power imbalance constrains the expression of this anger will be analyzed, specifically, the way anger is managed in interactive situations by prospective adoptive couples according to the "feeling rules" that come into play (Kemper, 1981:346). The powerlessness that couples experience is compounded by the structural restrictions that inhibit the expression of angerread more
Citations
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BookDOI
Reproductive trauma: Psychotherapy with infertility and pregnancy loss clients.
Janet Jaffe,Martha O. Diamond +1 more
Journal ArticleDOI
In search of bad mothers: Social constructions of birth and adoptive motherhood
TL;DR: In contrast to previous feminist research on adoption, which primarily focused on the predicament of birth mothers, the feminist approach advanced in this article emphasizes the interplay of gender and power in the social and scientific construction of both birth motherhood and adoptive motherhood.
Book ChapterDOI
The Transition to Adoptive Parenthood
TL;DR: Pacey et al. as mentioned in this paper found that the transition to parenthood is associated with emotional and physical fatigue, increased strain between work and family responsibilities, and compromised well-being.
Journal ArticleDOI
Adoption and mental health: A theoretical critique of the psychopathological model.
TL;DR: The extant research on adoption and mental health is reviewed, and an alternative interactionist perspective is offered that acknowledges the social embeddedness of experiences of adoption and infertility.
Journal ArticleDOI
“SOMEWHERE OUT THERE” Parental Claiming in the Preadoption Waiting Period
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe the process of parental claiming expressed in multiple interviews conducted with 35 infertile couples waiting to adopt a child, which is the special kind of emotional and intellectual work that adopting couples do prior to placement to make someone else's child "somewhere out there" their own.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Power-Dependence Relations
TL;DR: In this paper, a simple theory of the power aspects of social relations is presented, focusing on the characteristics of the relationship as such, with little or no regard for particular features of the persons or groups engaged in such relations.
Journal ArticleDOI
Emotion Work, Feeling Rules, and Social Structure
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