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Clinical Psychology and Special Education
2026. Vol. 15, no. 1, 64–78
doi:10.17759/cpse.2026150105
ISSN: 2304-0394 (online)

Identity And Coping with Traumatic Experiences Associated with The Disclosure of The Secret of Adoption in Adulthood

 
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Abstract

Context and relevance. Many Russian adoptive parents choose to hide the fact of adoption from their adopted children, guided by the law on secrecy of adoption in the Family Code of the Russian Federation. Moreover, according to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, even after reaching the age of majority and the death of adoptive parents, adopted children do not have the right to obtain information about their biological parents without the consent of their adoptive parents. In the context of the growing number of adoptions, scientists are faced with the challenge of studying the psychological consequences of maintaining a secret of adoption and its disclosure in adulthood. Objective. To study the stability of identity in adults who learn about their adoption, as a factor influencing coping with traumatic experience. Hypotheses. There are statistically significant relationships between the characteristics of coping with a traumatic situation related to the disclosure of the secret of adoption and the identity stability of adults who have learned about their adoption. Additional hypotheses: 1) there are statistically significant differences between adult adopted children in terms of how they disclose the secret of their adoption; 2) there are differences between adults who have learned about their adoption and adults without adoption experience. Methods and materials. The study involved adults who learned about their adoption (M = 37.0; SD = 9.6; 90.2% women) as the main group (n = 61); adults with no experience of adoption (M = 43.1; SD = 10.5; 82.3% women) as the control group (n = 62). To assess identity, the Identity Stability Index was used as adapted by Ya.A. Solovyeva and M.A. Odintsova. In addition, a battery of techniques was used to assess the features of experiencing traumatic experience and coping with them. Results. Statistically significant relationships were found between the coping characteristics in response to a psychotraumatic situations related to adoption secrecy disclosure and identity resilience of adults who learned about their adoption; statistically significant differences were observed in levels of identity resilience and posttraumatic growth, depending on the specifics of adoption disclosure within the group of adult adoptees, as well as between adults who learned about their adoption and adults without adoption experience. Conclusions. The identity resilience in the group of people who have learned about their adoption in adulthood significantly differs from that of the group with no experience of adoption, and differently correlates with indicators of coping with traumatic experience, which includes the disclosure of adoption secret in adulthood, depending on whether or not there are suspicions about their adoption. The results of the study will be useful not only to scientists and professional psychologists, but also to specialists in the field of family placement and foster parenting when choosing a strategy in the matter of the secret of adoption.

General Information

Keywords: adoption secrecy, disclosure of adoption in adulthood, adopted child, identity resili-ence, psychological trauma, coping, posttraumatic growth

Journal rubric: Empirical Research

Article type: scientific article

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/cpse.2026150105

Acknowledgements. The authors are grateful for assistance in data collection the Community of adult adoptees.

Received 14.09.2025

Revised 25.12.2025

Accepted

Published

For citation: Chinareva, Y.F., Aleksandrova, L.A. (2026). Identity And Coping with Traumatic Experiences Associated with The Disclosure of The Secret of Adoption in Adulthood. Clinical Psychology and Special Education, 15(1), 64–78. (In Russ.). https://doi.org/10.17759/cpse.2026150105

© Chinareva Y.F., Aleksandrova L.A., 2026

License: CC BY-NC 4.0

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Information About the Authors

Yulia F. Chinareva, MA in Psychology, Postgraduate student: International Laboratory of Positive Psychology of Personality and Motivation, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Psychologist of the Charity Fund «Volunteers to Help Orphans», Moscow, Russian Federation, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-7681-3993, e-mail: yuliachinareva@gmail.com

Lada A. Aleksandrova, Candidate of Science (Psychology), Leading Analyst of the Federal Coordination Center for Provision the Development of Psychological and Pedagogical Assistance in the Education System of the Russian Federation, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology & Pedagogy of Distance Learning, Moscow State University of Psychology and Education, Associate Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences, School of Psychology at National Research University “Higher School of Economics”, Moscow, Russian Federation, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3539-8058, e-mail: ladaleksandrova@mail.ru

Contribution of the authors

Yulia F. Chinareva — ideas; annotation, planning and control over the research; data collection and analysis; writing and design of the manuscript; visualization of research results.

Lada A. Aleksandrova — planning of research; control over the research; application of statistical, mathematical or other methods for data analysis; visualization of research results.

All authors participated in the discussion of the results and approved the final text of the manu-script.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Ethics statement

The study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of Moscow State University of Psychology and Education (report from 2025/01/10).

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