Cultural specific attitudes of Setswana people towards adoption

Abstract

The overall aim of the study was to describe the cultural specific attitudes of Setswana people towards adoption, thereby empowering relevant institutions to deal with adoption in a culturally sensitive manner. Section A contains the orientation to the research and the problem statement, the research aim and the procedure followed. The literature review is discussed along with the limitations of the study, the definitions of the key concepts and the research methodology. The problem statement can be condensed as follows: The legalised disruption of blood ties is either unfamiliar or forbidden in many African cultures. This means that the placement of children with people other than their parents – albeit a friend, relative or orphanage – is not recognised in determining the child's future. As a result, in a large number of African communities, formalised adoption continues to be a foreign concept and is therefore scarcely utilised. In addition, the focus of prior research was on the African community as a unit, neglecting diversity in the African culture. This led to the research question: what are the cultural specific attitudes of Setswana people towards adoption. The problem statement led to one research objective. The study employed a two-fold sampling design namely, purposive and availability sampling which are both techniques of non-probability sampling. Quantitative data was collected by using a questionnaire developed by Gerrand (1997). Literature studies were conducted on the following themes: adoption, inter-cultural adoptions, and family building in African communities. Section B consists of one article that forms part of the research outcome. A questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data and the researcher included demographical information to test the construct validity on different variables, namely: the birthparent, adoptive parent and the adopted child. The findings have been constructed according to different themes. The aim of this phase of the study was to quantitatively verify the attitudes of Setswana people towards adoption. A total of 110 respondents completed the questionnaire; however, 83 questionnaires were used as they represented the Setswana cultural group in the Ikageng community, North-West Province. Section C provides a summary of the findings and conclusions of the research report in total. Recommendations to relevant institutions as well as future research are discussed. Section D contains the annexures