Kaleidoscopes of Kinship: A Narrative Inquiry of Birth Fathers’ and Adoptive Fathers’ Experiences of Open Adoptions

Abstract

This narrative inquiry explores the experiences of contemporary birth fathers and adoptive fathers involved in kinship networks created through open adoption practice in the United States. Despite a generation of rigorous, critical adoption research into the lived experiences of open adoption practice, the perspectives of men who voluntarily relinquish a child to adoption and remain involved in their lives are extremely underrepresented in adoption-related discourse and scholarship, leaving men who are considering or have placed a child for adoption isolated, under resourced, and vulnerable to pernicious cultural stereotypes and negative attitudes. While the adoption industry and scholarship has historically privileged the perspectives, needs, and desires of adoptive parents, adoptive fathers’ experiences of open adoption have received less focused attention. The purpose of this study was to help professionals, people with adoption experience, and the general public to better understand how men in the position of birth father or adoptive father describe themselves and their experiences of becoming and being involved in fully disclosed, expansive adoptive kinship networks. The participants were 28 men, 5 birth fathers and 23 adoptive fathers, between 30 to 60 years old, living in the United States, who voluntarily became involved in open adoptions between 1990 and 2019. This qualitative study was conducted using narrative research methodology, informed by social constructionism, and based on interpretation of semi-structured interviews. Findings shed light on the complexity of men’s experiences of the adoption process and kinship networks, including reflections on their own childhoods, partnership, pregnancy, birth and relinquishment, and navigating new and ongoing relationships among a range of kinship members. Suggestions for promoting empathic, inclusive, and adoption-competent social services, as well as enhancing counseling, family therapy, and social work training and education, are provided.