• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.1-17
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• 2022

This study provides a critical analysis of the Family Center's programs for adoptive families by interviewing employees at these centers and at Adoption Agencies who have experiences with adoption programs. For this study, nine such workers from three separate Family Centers and three such workers from two separate Adoption Agencies have (voluntarily) engaged in in-depth interviews. Major findings from the interviews are that the Family Centers were initially motivated to carry out adoption family programs for three principal reasons: they located many families (in need of adoption family program); potential adoptees were interested in the program; adoption families participated in the pre-existing programs such as Self-help Group and Co-parenting Space. Workers in the study also reported that they approach to an adoption family and their contemplation on ways to provide better services to the adoption families. They don't have any official and formal manual or guidelines from the Government Ministries and offices such as Korean Institute for Healthy Family; as a result, the workers at Family Centers have endeavored to gain connection with Adoption Agencies in hopes of cooperation with them and to improve the services at Family Centers. For benefits of Family Centers as a delivery system, they mentioned nationwide infrastructure, family professional, and arrangement of integrated program for family. For improvements, they listed awareness education based on a thorough consideration of adoptee's varied characteristics, close cooperation with adoption institutions, provision of basic operational manual from Korean Institute for Healthy Family, and governmental efforts to enlarge the consideration pool for families.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.47-68
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• 2021

The purpose of this study was to provide information on adoptive families and obtain the basis data for adoption-related programs that are useful to adoptive families by examining their experiences in the adoption process, post-adoption adaptation, and adoption programs. For the study, in-depth interviews were conducted on six mothers who publicly adopted elementary school children and had expressed high satisfaction with adopted families and their willingness to participate in this research voluntarily. The main results exhibited parents' happiness post-adoption along with positive changes, such as internal growth, marital love growth, favorable response from others, and child's unexpected responses to adoption. However, open adoption mothers have coped with efforts to sympathize with and accept their children's feelings as they suffer from adoption, and with active support from their spouses, parents, and their own children. Open adoption mothers participated in various adoption-related programs, support, and voluntary self-help groups provided by adoption agencies or public organizations, and above all, their experience in self-help groups and peer groups of adopted children was found to be very useful. Based on these main results, we suggested strengthening welfare services for open adoption families, implementing education to better understand adoption, education for school teachers, students, and welfare staff, providing practical programs for adoptive families, and promoting self-help groups.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.35-48
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• 2022

This study aims to investigate prejudiced descriptions of adoption and adoptive families in the major textbooks in the field of child and family welfare studies. To this end, we analyzed the compositions and contents of eleven different textbooks and found four necessary changes to recommend: first, we found it essential for authors to have a comprehensive understanding of the characteristics of the open adoption culture and adoptive families. Second, we observed the need for the revision of prejudiced terminology found in textbooks' descriptions of adoptive families - about adopters, adoptees, and adoption institutions. Third, we advise an enhancement in the understanding of adoptive families reflecting both qualitative and quantitative understandings of the open adoption culture and perspective about social prejudice against adoptive families. Finally, we advocate for the inclusion adoptive families as one of the diverse forms a family can take, not only in the curriculum of child (children's rights) studies but also in the curricula of other family-related disciplines such as family welfare and healthy family theory. Based on these four changes, we propose a new approach to authoring including a multifaceted review of the subject composition and the content of the major textbooks and revision of the overall contents of the textbooks.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.399-432
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to understand the adjustment process of families adopting an older child, and to generate a substantial theory. To achieve this purpose, we conducted in-depth interviews with mothers adopting an older child and analyzed data with qualitative analysis approach. From the analysis, theoretical model has been made, and the model includes the adoptive families' diverse experiences, barriers to adjustment as well as resources and strategies that they mobilized and used for smooth adjustment. Their experiences in the process of adjustment consisted of five phases: unfamiliar meeting, shock, fighting alone without support, control, and stability. Barriers to adjustment process were composed of adoptees' problem behaviors, loss of time, lack of preparation, lack of experiences, repetition of the vicious circle, withstanding alone, improper resources, lack of support, and being criticized. Resources and strategies that families adopting an older child utilized were individual resources and ability such as rearing experiences, intellectual ability, willingness, belief, and perspective change; family system such as spouse and other offsprings; informal support system such as extended families, relatives, friends, neighbors, and other families adopting an older child; formal resources such as adoption workers and helping professionals. From our results, we suggested policy and practice guidelines to help adjustment experiences for families adopting an older child.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.62 no.2
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• pp.209-233
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to understand the 'search' experiences of adoptive families. To understand their experiences in searching for birth families, the researchers made contacts with adoptive families who had tried the search before, got informed consents from them, and took in-depth interview with each family. The qualitative case study approach was taken to analyze the data collected. Data collected from five adoptive families were employed for within-case analysis and cross-case analysis. The themes emerged from cross-case analysis were 'the awareness of being adopted', 'curiosity explosion', 'the anxious waiting', 'the moment the truth was found', 'Indeed, I'm a real mom', and 'Then, there was a silence'. Based on the results of the study, the policy and practical guidelines to support the search of adoptive families were suggested. Also, the suggestions for the following studies were made to obtain more abundant information beyond the limitations of the study.

• Korean Journal of Family Social Work
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• no.23
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• pp.71-102
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to understand the meaning of being adopted that adopted children have experienced. To achieve this purpose, researchers contacted adopted children and adoptive parents, collected data through in-depth interview and document, and analysed these data using case study approach. 23 adopted children over three ages and their parents were interviewed for this study. Participants were classified into three groups(3~5 ages, 6 ages, over 7 ages) based on their age. Researchers investigated the changes of the meaning of being adopted by age. The major findings were follows: First, the meaning of being adopted that adopted children have experienced was changed from 6 ages. Second, this study analyzed that the meaning of being adopted was love born by heart at 3~5 ages, inevitable grief at 6 ages and first step of adoptive person over 7 ages. Based on the findings, this study suggested practice guidelines to help adoptive children and their family.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.5-33
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to understand the open adoption experience of adoptive families. For this purpose, the data were collected through diverse data collection methods including in-depth interviews with adoptive families who had experiences of open adoption and analyzed using a qualitative case study approach. Data collected from six adoptive families were employed for within-case analysis and cross-case analysis. Each case was carefully examined and summarized using story-telling style in the within-case analysis and major issues for open adoption appeared in each case were described and compared one by one. In the cross-case analysis, all the cases were re-examined keeping the issues appeared in the within-case analysis in mind and eight integrated themes were emerged from it. The eight integrated themes are 'the crucial meeting', 'a clear arrangement', 'an uneasy parallel', 'the other mom', 'who are the real parents?', 'the words never to say', 'the hidden characters', and 'the center of relations or the outsider'. Based on the results of the study, the policies and practical guidelines related to open adoption were suggested. Also, the suggestions for the further studies were made to obtain more abundant information beyond the limitations of the study.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.8 no.12
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• pp.357-365
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• 2008

The Korean Government is enforcing policies to activate domestic adoption in order to guarantee and protect stable family lives of children requiring protection. We surveyed recognitions and attitudes toward adoption and adoption policies of Daejeon citizens. The result will be important information for activating domestic adoption. We could find that motives of adoption centered on adopted children rather than adoptive parents. Especially, the recognition level toward open adoption is high, which shows that the domestic adoption can be activated if multiple political supports are provided for adopted children and adoptive families.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.99-116
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to analyze the influences of family resilience on the self-concept of adopted children in open adoptive families in Korea. The participants of this study consisted of 94 adoptive parents and 113 of their elementary-aged adopted children. The findings of this study were as follows. First, the family resilience level of open adoptive families was 2.91 out of 4 full points. Second, the self-concept of adopted children in elementary school showed significantly higher scores than a norm group. Finally, the socio-demographic characteristics and adoption related factors did not significantly influence the self-concept of adopted children. Only the organization patterns of family resilience positively affected the self-concept of adopted children.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.33-50
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• 2011

This study aims to examine experiences of adoptive families, mainly focusing on mothers with their biological children and adopted a child, through a phenomenological approach. The subjects of this study are adoptive family's mothers with their biological children according to a criterion-based selection. 15 mothers who adopted children under 12 months, who are currently aged over 6, are selected and given personal and in-depth interviews, questions ranging from the process before adoption, foster care and changes in family relationships to the issues caused by adoption and coping methods. 6 steps of a phenomenological method that Colaizzi(1978) proposed are applied to analyze the data. The results of this study are as follows. The central theme of this study is 'A family which has harmonized with love beyond blood ties'. First, the participants have shown difficulties in different aspects over adoption than those of sterile families. The motive of their adoption is to let adopted children experience a happy childhood in a loving family. Secondly, the participants have adjusted themselves to new adoptive families, have committed to the care of their new children, and have experienced a change in family relationships. Finally, adoptive families have successfully been settled while overcoming difficulties together.