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Genetic and adoptive motherhood: Stress, marital relationship, and child care support
Author(s) -
HowatRodrigues Anna Beatriz Carnielli,
Tokumaru Rosana Suemi,
Amorim Thalita Novaes,
Garcia Agnaldo,
Izar Patrícia
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
international journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.75
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1464-066X
pISSN - 0020-7594
DOI - 10.1080/00207594.2013.789879
Subject(s) - psychology , developmental psychology , child care , marital status , stress (linguistics) , clinical psychology , demography , medicine , pediatrics , population , sociology , linguistics , philosophy
In this paper we characterize adoptive and genetic motherhood with or without stress indicators. Participants were 86 mothers (36 adoptive, 50 genetic) with children from 0 to 12 years old. They answered questions about focal child and mother profile, marital relationship, child care support and the Lipp's Stress Symptoms Inventory for Adults. Results showed that mothers in both groups reported child care support, but there was more participation of nonrelatives in the care of adoptive children and relatives in the care of genetic children. There was greater marital stability and less conflict with the arrival of the child in the adoptive families and predominance of stress indicators in genetic mothers. We concluded that, although there are differences between adoptive and genetic motherhood, these do not imply advantages for one versus the other. Moreover, marital stability related to the adoption process and sociodemographic characteristics of adoptive mothers may have contributed to lower prevalence of stress.