ADOPTEES PORTRAYAL OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF FAMILY-STRUCTURE

Young adult adoptees and nonadoptees provided retrospective accounts o f family relationships from infancy to young adulthood Adoptive famili es were portrayed as more cohesive and adaptable than nonadoptive fami lies. Adoptive fathers were recalled as being closer to their children then were nonadoptive fathers in the years preceding adolescence. Wit hin the same time frame, adoptive mothers were drawn in a less hierarc hical relation to their children than were other parents. Also, while adoptive males saw themselves as presently unconnected to their adopti ve parents, adopted females perceived themselves as more connected to their parents in the present than any other period of time. Openness o f communication and acknowledgment of difference in adoptive family fo rmation varied with graphic retrospective accounts. Results were consi dered in terms of discontinuities between reported observations of ado ptive families and adoptees' personal reflections on family developmen tal history.