Psychological features of families keeping the secrecy of adoption

The article is devoted to psychological characteristics of families who have adopted a child and preserving the secrecy of adoption. Based on the analysis of foreign researches, several aspects of the institute of adoption and family constitution were listed and discussed, as well as the socio-cultural causes of the secrecy of adoption, the transformation of attitude to a host family in society. The authors compared the attitude of society to the secrecy of adoption in Russia and abroad, denoted challenges that scientific psychology and practices are facing because of the need for assistance to host families, preserving the secrecy of adoption. Based on the analysis of cases applied for psychotherapeutic help host families, as well as extensions of published data, the researchers highlighted psychological characteristics of the families, that preserve the secrecy of adoption. Highlighted features are discussed in context of the prospects of forming a help strategy for such families.