Réflexions autour de la notion de fonction réflexive parentale dans l’adoption

Abstract

While the literature on international adoption has mostly focused on children's outcomes, studies focused on international adoption are now increasingly focusing on the subjective experience of parents and the relational processes at work in adoptive families. BackgroundIn that perspective, the aim of this study is to explore the representations of adoptive parents in order to initiate a reflection about the impact of parents’ reflective functioning (PRF) in the experience of adoptive parenthood. Defined as the parent's ability to assign a meaning to his or her own behavior and to his or her child's within their relationship, PRF plays a key role in relational parent-child adjustment and in the development of secure attachment in children. This parenting ability presented as a considerable protective factor in parent-child relationships and as a major resilience factor in stressful and traumatic situations, has been little studied in the context of intercountry adoption. Yet adoptive parenthood exposes both parents and children to specific risk factors and stresses that can affect relationships. Based on the speeches of adoptive parents, this qualitative study aims to consider the influence of PRF on the specific experience of adoptive parenthood. Population and methodTen French parents who adopted at least one child abroad participated in two semi-structured interviews. The first one covers their experiences specifically related to adoption; the second interview is the Parent Development Interview (PDI), which explores parents’ representations of themselves as parents, of their child, and of their relationship with the later. The interviews are analysed using the qualitative method of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. ResultsThe interviews’ phenomenological analysis highlights three main types of representations influencing the experience of our participants’ parenthood: the representations of the first parent-child meetings, the representations of life with this particular child, as well as the place of adoption as a filial particularity. ConclusionA developed PRF appears to be an important protective factor for adoptive parenthood. The capacity of the parent to give a meaning to his or her own experience and that of his or her child in the context of the relationship ensures in fact a mediating function on the representations forged during the first and subsequent relational experiences with the child by promoting positive representations of themselves as a parent, of the child and of the relationship. The PRF then supports a positive experience of parenthood despite the difficulties encountered, as well as the building of strong bonds of affection and parenthood to the child.