In this thesis is researched how much help and what kind of help adoption parents need in the process of adoption. Through the research, I looked more upfront at what challenges the adoptive parents are facing and who is helping and supporting them. Adoption is a life event that changes the lives of all participants. Help can be sought by family members in formal or informal sources, which are more or less helpful in overcoming these challenges.
In order to obtain this information, I carried out a survey involving adoptive parents who adopted their child after the year 2000. The results showed that most adoptive parents face the challenges of adoption. Among the challenges are most often present exhaustion and fatigue, handling the new role of parent, figuring out a new identity as a parent, pointing to a new pace of life and challenges related to child upbringing. Adoptive parents are looking for help and support from various sources. The research showed that most adoptive parents look for help and support from informal sources, and this kind of help is usually offered to them. The adoptive parents are more satisfied with informal sources than with formal sources of help.
Approximately half of the adoptive parents would like to have had more help from the social work centers in the form of conversation and would have liked to get more help with arranging documents related to adoption and social security and benefits.
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