title: Genetic and adoptive motherhood: stress, marital relationship, and child care support.
abstract: In this paper we characterize adoptive and genetic motherhood with or without stress indicators. Participants were 86 mothers (36 adoptive, 50 genetic) with children from 0 to 12 years old. They answered questions about focal child and mother profile, marital relationship, child care support and the Lipp's Stress Symptoms Inventory for Adults. Results showed that mothers in both groups reported child care support, but there was more participation of nonrelatives in the care of adoptive children and relatives in the care of genetic children. There was greater marital stability and less conflict with the arrival of the child in the adoptive families and predominance of stress indicators in genetic mothers. We concluded that, although there are differences between adoptive and genetic motherhood, these do not imply advantages for one versus the other. Moreover, marital stability related to the adoption process and sociodemographic characteristics of adoptive mothers may have contributed to lower prevalence of stress.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Experimental Psychology , University of São Paulo , São Paulo , Brazil.
authors.forename: Anna Beatriz Carnielli
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Howat-Rodrigues
authors.forename: Rosana Suemi
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Tokumaru
authors.forename: Thalita Novaes
authors.initials: TN
authors.lastname: de Amorim
authors.forename: Agnaldo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Garcia
authors.forename: Patrícia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Izar
mesh_terms: D000300:Adoption / Q000523:psychology*; D000328:Adult; D002654:Child Care / Q000523:psychology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage / Q000523:psychology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D012944:Social Support; D013315:Stress, Psychological