Wereldkinderen:

That all adopted people are interested in their background and want to look for their birth parents is outdated. Not every adopted person wants to know more and starts searching. On the other hand, adopters who are in contact with their birth family may want more information from their family, but who do not get it. Gera ter Meulen explains recent research into this.   Young adult After the age of 18, a new situation arises for adoptees: because they are formally mature they get access to waiver and adoption files, they can decide for themselves what they want to do with information about their background and they determine their relationships with adoptive family and birth family. And because identity is important in this phase of life, they may also want to know more about their background.   Curiosity An adopted person can be satisfied with the available information if all necessary information is present, but also if he / she no longer needs to know. An information gap is created if the adopted person wants more information, for example because he / she knows little, but also in the case of open adoptions, an adopted person may have the idea that more information should be available. Curiosity appears to be an important factor for how satisfied the adopted person is with the available adoption information. He / she only looks for further information when this curiosity is so great that he / she takes action. Satisfying curiosity does not mean that the adopted person automatically searches for his / her birth family. Information can also be found from books or the internet, by viewing distance and adoption documents, or by continuing to ask the adoptive family. Sometimes barriers stop action: own barriers, such as "not ready" or "afraid of hurting adoptive parents," or barriers in the outside world, such as not cooperating from adoption organizations or excessive costs.

Curious about what? Wrobel and Grotevant asked 169 young adult domestic adopters about what missing information about the birth mother and birth father they were most curious about. The adopted people were largely curious about the same subjects. Four topics stood out. The need for information about the genetic and medical background of the birth family was by far the most mentioned. Medical information may be important in this phase of life because people themselves think about having children. Also wanting to know how the birth parents are doing, what they look like and whether there are biological brothers and / or sisters, were frequently mentioned themes. The interests of the adopted men and women differed little. Women were slightly more interested in the birth mother's attitude towards her child, in possible biological brothers and sisters, and in the appearance of the birth parents. Men were more often interested in the circumstances of conception.   The researchers provide professionals with the following:     If an adopted person has many questions: support him / her, let them know that it is normal, provide information sources (books, internet) and refer to adoption-competent professionals;     No need for information is not problematic;     Not everyone is interested in the same topics;     With direct contact there can still be curiosity for information;     There appears to be a great need for information about medical information from biological parents, preferably updated information.