Socio-psychological criteria for mutual selection of adoptive parents and children deprived of parental care as prognostic signs of the mental health of their future family

Introduction The modern national child welfare system assisting children deprived of parental care aims at changing priorities in favor of family placement. However, this process is complicated by the lack of socio-psychological mutual selection of potential adoptive parents and orphans or children deprived of parental care. It is not taken into account that future parents will have to interact with children whose behavior is affected by maternal deprivation. At the same time, the cases of returning children back to orphanages make it especially important to study the factors that affect the quality of an adoptive family, i. e. its psychological health or its dysfunction. Purpose To determine the socio-psychological criteria for the mutual selection of adoptive parents and orphans or children deprived of parental care. Methodology The study was conducted in the period of 2017–2020. For the purpose of studying the socio-psychological factors that affect psychological health of an adoptive family, a semi-structured interview was used. It was conducted at the premises of the Kyiv City Orphanage in Vorzel and included observation (81 hours) in a psychotherapeutic group for adoptive parents at the premises of the personal development center "Fermata", Kyiv. The study involved 50 people aged from 27 to 50.