Cette étude explore les représentations de parents adoptifs afin d’amorcer une réflexion sur l’influence de la fonction réflexive parentale (FRP) dans l’expérience de la parentalité adoptive. Définie comme l’aptitude du parent à attribuer un sens à son propre comportement et à celui de son enfant dans le cadre de la relation, la FRP joue un rôle majeur dans l’ajustement relationnel parent-enfant et dans le développement d’un attachement sécure chez l’enfant.

Dix parents ayant adopté un enfant à l’étranger ont participé à deux entretiens semi-structurés. Le premier aborde leurs expériences liées à l’adoption ; le second entretien est le Parent Development Interview (PDI) qui explore les représentations que les parents ont d’eux-mêmes en tant que parents, de leur enfant et de leur relation. Les entretiens sont analysés selon la méthode qualitative de l’Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis.

Trois grands types de représentations parentales sont dégagés : les représentations des premières rencontres avec l’enfant, les représentations de la vie avec l’enfant et la place de l’adoption en tant que particularité filiative.

Une FRP développée apparaît comme un facteur de protection important de la parentalité adoptive. La capacité du parent à réfléchir à sa propre expérience et à celle de son enfant dans le cadre de la relation assure une médiatisation des représentations forgées lors des premières expériences relationnelles avec l’enfant et celles ultérieures. Elle favorise alors une expérience positive de la parentalité et la construction de liens d’attachement et de parenté solides.

While the literature on international adoption has mostly focused on children's outcomes, studies focused on international adoption are now increasingly focusing on the subjective experience of parents and the relational processes at work in adoptive families.

In that perspective, the aim of this study is to explore the representations of adoptive parents in order to initiate a reflection about the impact of parents’ reflective functioning (PRF) in the experience of adoptive parenthood. Defined as the parent's ability to assign a meaning to his or her own behavior and to his or her child's within their relationship, PRF plays a key role in relational parent-child adjustment and in the development of secure attachment in children. This parenting ability presented as a considerable protective factor in parent-child relationships and as a major resilience factor in stressful and traumatic situations, has been little studied in the context of intercountry adoption. Yet adoptive parenthood exposes both parents and children to specific risk factors and stresses that can affect relationships. Based on the speeches of adoptive parents, this qualitative study aims to consider the influence of PRF on the specific experience of adoptive parenthood.

Ten French parents who adopted at least one child abroad participated in two semi-structured interviews. The first one covers their experiences specifically related to adoption; the second interview is the Parent Development Interview (PDI), which explores parents’ representations of themselves as parents, of their child, and of their relationship with the later. The interviews are analysed using the qualitative method of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis.

The interviews’ phenomenological analysis highlights three main types of representations influencing the experience of our participants’ parenthood: the representations of the first parent-child meetings, the representations of life with this particular child, as well as the place of adoption as a filial particularity.

A developed PRF appears to be an important protective factor for adoptive parenthood. The capacity of the parent to give a meaning to his or her own experience and that of his or her child in the context of the relationship ensures in fact a mediating function on the representations forged during the first and subsequent relational experiences with the child by promoting positive representations of themselves as a parent, of the child and of the relationship. The PRF then supports a positive experience of parenthood despite the difficulties encountered, as well as the building of strong bonds of affection and parenthood to the child.