Odkrywanie przez rodziców adopcyjnych i zastępczych odmienności dziecka wynikającej z niepełnosprawności. Studium fenomenograficzne

A certain percentage of disabled children are not raised in their biological families. It happens more and more often that the place of residence of such a child is not an institution but the adoptive or foster family. Increased prevalence of this type of families makes the study of this area of functioning of children with disabilities more and more important. The paper covers the issue of dealing with a child’s difference by their adoptive/foster parents. The difference has its source e. g. in a disability. The empirical part of the article is the result of qualitative research conducted with parents from 20 adoptive/foster families that raise a child with a disability (this is a part of a broader research project conducted by the authors with these families). The analysis of the interviews shows the ways to discover the otherness, the difference of the child, the ways to accept this otherness, and the importance they ascribe to the otherness of the child.