Overview: Using data from semi-structured interviews with adoption professionals (n=20), this analysis examines how adoption professionals provide services to expectant fathers and their perceptions on expectant fathers’ role in the adoption process.Proposal text: Background/Rationale: Adoption professionals provide a critical service to expectant parents who are exploring their options for an unplanned or crisis pregnancy. These professionals are tasked with providing options counseling, an individualized assessment/counseling process whereby expectant parents are assisted in objectively evaluating their options (e.g., parenting the child, placing the child with kin, making an adoption plan, or termination of the pregnancy). There is limited literature on options counseling provided by adoption professionals to birth mothers (e.g., Bitner-Laird et al., 2020; Koh & Kim, 2021). However, even less is known about how adoption professionals provide services to expectant fathers or how they perceive expectant fathers’ role in the adoption process.
Methods: In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with adoption professionals (n=20) via telephone. Participants were recruited using a variety of methods. Atlas.ti qualitative software was used to conduct a conventional content analysis. After transcripts were reviewed for overall accuracy, core themes were identified through an iterative coding process by two researchers.
Results: Almost all (n=19) of the 20 participants identified as female. Participants represented an age range of 25-73 years (M=40.95, SD=15.10). All had earned their undergraduate degree, and 16 (80.0%) reported having at least a master’s degree. Half of the respondents’ (n=10) graduate degree was in social work.
A prevalent theme identified in interviews was an emphasis on the legal and transactional aspects of the adoption and a desire for the father to not interfere with the mothers’ decision about pursuing adoption. As one adoption professional stated, “[An] ideal situation is I mail birth father paperwork and he signs before the baby arrives.” Participants’ statements focused on identifying the father to list on the required paperwork and locating them to sign relinquishment paperwork. Fathers were generally perceived as a barrier or challenge to the adoption process. When fathers were involved in the adoption, adoption professionals tended to attribute negative motives to their involvement: “What we tend to see is the men who they may not have a lot of interest in the baby, but they wanna punish the birth mother and so that's also really bad for those clients.” When discussing services provided to expectant parents, the adoption professionals focused almost exclusively on services provided to mothers. However, a small subset identified the needs of birth fathers, including a desire to help to understand their rights and offer access to grief counseling.
Conclusions: This study provides further insight into how adoption professionals work with and perceive their work with expectant fathers during the adoption process. While the rights of the expectant mother in making informed choices is critical, additional attention is needed for expectant fathers. Information about their rights and responsibilities should be provided to expectant fathers in an unbiased and factual manner. Grief services, often identified as a much-needed component for birth mothers, should also be accessible for birth fathers, echoing a recommendation made by Clapton (2007). Additional implications and recommendations for adoption professionals and areas for future research will be addressed.
