Methodological findings in studies on adoptive families

Abstract

The issue of adoptive families is the object of interest for many researchers, especially outside Polish borders. A critical analysis of previous studies on adoption shows that the scientific value of many of the existing studies raises doubts. The reasons of this are more or less significant methodological weaknesses, which significantly reduce their scientific value. Researchers often focus on the study of individuals in the adoptive family, e.g. mothers only, adopted children only or selected types of relationships within the family e.g. the mother - child relation. There is a little amount of studies on family systems. It seems worthy to note that numerous studies are conducted in the cause-effect model of explaining phenomena in the adoptive family. Such approach to the study of reality, which is the family, is regarded as too big simplification. Therefore, there is an important reason to undertake the scientific discourse on the research methodology on the adoptive family. Discussed in the paper issues include: theoretical models, arrangement of studies, especially the selection of the test group and the research methods used in the study on adoptive families. Conducting scientific research is essential for the adoption practice. Among psychologists-practitioners exists a disturbing belief that working with adoptive families can be based on the experience gained in psychological practice. This fact can be explained by the existing lack of willingness of adoptive families to cooperate in the field of scientific research. Lack of this cooperation significantly limits the access to the study population of adoptive families.