Between certainties and dilemmas: research on the experience of adoption teams in Italy

Abstract

The article describes empirical research on the experience of the teams dealing with adoptions in Piedmont (north-west Italy), since they were set up a little more than twenty years ago. Interviews and focus groups were conducted with a representative sample of 48 social work professionals involved in the assessment of couples wanting to adopt. The interviews focused on the themes covered in assessments, on the decision-making process, on the assessment criteria, and on the representations of what an adoptive parent is. Findings confirm the importance of social workers’ representations in the decision-making process, which is often a mediation between different representations. They also show the need for a new parental identity, and systematic dialogue between all the social actors who interact in the social space of adoption practice.