Providing Adaptation Solutions to the Problems Faced by Adoptive Families

Background: Adoption is frequently viewed as a way to complete the family because of the infertility that some families experience and the desire for kids and teenagers, especially orphans, to have a loving family.

Aims: This work intends to identify and propose adaptation solutions to address the psychological problems faced by adoptive families. By doing so, it is hoped that the mental health and overall well-being of individuals and society as a whole will be enhanced.

Materials and methods: In the first stage of this study, the grounded theory approach based on Strauss and Corbin's methodology was used to interview representatives of adoptive families in Iran in 2022 and identify the problems they experience. In the second stage, the same approach and methodology were used to interview representatives of experts. In the second stage, the results of the first stage were presented to a sample of purposefully selected experts, who subsequently proposed solutions for the families to adapt to their problems. Data analysis was conducted using MAXQDA 2020 software (VERBI Software, Berlin, Germany). Ethical requirements were followed at every stage of the study.

Results: Four problem categories were identified in the first step of the study: legal-psychological problems, problems related to the growth of the child in an environment of social harm, attitude and worldview, and the resilience of the adoptive couple. In the second step of the study, four groups of solutions for psychological adjustment were extracted: explaining the issue of what, how, and why of adoption (correct identification of the problems faced by adoptive families, clarification of concepts and demystification, the need for research to address other gaps in the knowledge infrastructure, and the importance of critical thinking education), operational solutions (supervising the adoption database to become more efficient, unitization of adoption national institutes in each province, selection of officials based on both factors of professional and complete mental health, alignment of the provisions and other related legal matters between the involved institutions, and utilization of media influence are recommended, interactional solutions for family resilience (cognitive-therapeutic interactions for mental health based on flexibility, raising the family's social capacity through active counseling, improving problem-solving skills, fostering family self-efficacy, creating purposefulness, and appropriate beliefs to predict a bright future), attitude-changing solutions (redefining social norms and facilitating the adoption of desired attitudes by employing social psychology principles, exploiting the power of media and influential figures, employing techniques derived from the psychology of learning, establishing conducive conditions within the framework of individuals' cognitive dissonance to modify their attitudes, and employing persuasion strategies).

Conclusion: Legislators and law enforcers, adoptive families, psychologists and consultants working in this field, and physicians specializing in infertility treatment can benefit from the findings of this study.