Delaying Adoption Disclosure: A Survey of Late Discovery Adoptees

Abstract

Despite common recommendations from professionals that adoption disclosure should be done at early ages, reports suggest that a sizeable number of adult adoptees do not learn of their adoption status until older ages. The few studies that exist indicate that the late discovery of adoption is linked to psychological distress and feelings of anger, betrayal, depression, and anxiety. In this mixed-method study, 254 adult adoptees completed a survey consisting of the K10 (Kessler Distress Inventory) the World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale–BREF, open-ended prompts, and demographic items. Results indicated that those who learned of their adoptions from age 3 and older reported more distress and lower life satisfaction when controlling for the amount of time adoptees have known of their adoption statuses and their use of coping strategies. Adoptees also indicated a desire for communicative openness and reported that beneficial coping methods included supportive relationships and seeking contact with birth relatives and other adoptees.

Family Histories, Family Stories and Family Secrets: Late Discoveries of Being Adopted

“…Finding out that everyone knew and I didn't is probably the single most traumatic event in my life". (Baden et al 2019(Baden et al , p. 1171 Baden et al also draw attention to intrapersonal effects such as psychological distress: 'The adult adoptees in this study reported that learning of their adoption status as adults was significantly related to increased psychological distress even when measured many years after the adoption disclosure' (Baden et al 2019(Baden et al , p. 1172.…”

“…The obvious parallel with the experiences of people who discover they are adopted is that of those who have been conceived by donor. Riley (2013) and Baden et al (2019) make this connection. Our knowledge that considerably more donor-conceived adults have their status concealed from them than adopted adults (Daniels et al 2009) means that further down the line, notwithstanding the international trends for the reversal of donor anonymity (Blyth and Frith 2013), sooner rather than later, there will be a similar burgeoning of research relating to the experiences of late-discovery of origins in this group of people.…”

“…Riley's work, also with Australian adult adoptees, (Riley 2008(Riley , 2009(Riley , 2013 consists of the analysis of 22 accounts of late discovery of adoption. The third, to date the more extensive paper, is that of Baden et al (2019) and involved a survey of 254 adopted adults, nearly half of whom had found out about their adoption after the age of 11, with 92 finding out after turning 21 years old (one informant found out about their adoption when they were 78 yrs. old).…”

“…Based upon Riley's finding that 11% of her study of adopted adults had discovered in later life that they were adopted and on an estimate of 5 million adopted people in the USA, Baden et al calculated that '550,000 U.S. adoptees, likely experienced delayed adoption disclosure or even nondisclosure altogether' (Baden et al 2019(Baden et al , p. 1157. If Mignot's calculations relating to Western Europe (Mignot 2017) are used, then between 1900 and 2021, there have been 19,000 adoptions.…”

“…However, let us now return to the event of late discovery itself. The following five themes of shock, betrayal, realisation of denial of difference, losses and legacies are derived from Riley (2008Riley ( , 2009Riley ( , 2013 and Baden et al (2019) and in no hierarchical order. Though it seems right to begin with the event of the discovery.…”