| Author: | Tsang, Min-yan |
| Title: | An exploratory study on the parenting difficulties of adoptive mothers when their pre-school age adopted child enters school |
| Degree: | M.A. |
| Year: | 1999 |
| Subject: | Adoption -- China -- Hong Kong Adoptive parents -- China -- Hong Kong Parenting Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | Department of Applied Social Studies |
| Pages: | 117, [13] leaves ; 30 cm |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | The objective of adoption service in Hong Kong is to arrange permanent homes for children in need. The idea of a child placed with suitable adoptive home is seen as the end of the story and the adoptive home is believed to be happily thereafter without any need for social work intervention. From the researcher's working experience with the adoptive families, most of the families function well within the 6-month placement period supervised by the Social Welfare Department. With an impression that adoptive mothers are more concerned with issues about children, this study is aimed at exploring their parenting difficulties when their children "step out" of the family and started pre-school education. In this study, four informants were interviewed. Since the sample size is small, the researcher had no intention to generalize the situation of the adoptive mothers in Hong Kong but to get an idea of the topic studied. It is found that the adoptive mothers were devoted in their mothering role and were capable in performing their role with basis knowledge about child development with love and care in general. The factors affecting their performance were explored. Besides, their parenting difficulties when their children reached pre-school age, especially when their children entered pre-school education were explored. In general, these mothers did not have many problems. Besides, they were aware that their emotions had affected their parenting behaviours. In coping with the general parenting difficulties, these mothers had resources within and outside the family which helped them develop confidence to tackle their problems. The major difficulty encountered by the adoptive mothers was found to be adoption-related especially when they had to reveal the adoption status to their adopted child. Due to the limited psychological preparation in carrying out this task and the lack of support to perform it, these mothers felt handicapped and were in need of assistance. Regarding the above, some areas are highlighted for front-line workers and the policy makers to have a thorough thought on their service delivery, service provision and policy-making in adoption. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
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| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| b14897349.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 4.08 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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