König, Alexandra/Niederbacher, Arne (2022): "Die Suche nach den besten Eltern. Eine Dokumentenanalyse zum Wandel des normativen Musters guter Kindheit in der Adoptionsvermittlung." Zeitschrift für Soziologie, 51(3): 278-297. https://doi.org/10.1515/zfsoz-2022-0018

Abstract: The goal of this article is to investigate the normative patterns of good childhood and parenthood which guide adoption in Germany. It falls on adoption agents to determine who are good or even the ‚best‘ parents for a child. Their job is to (1) verify the suitability of applicants – often childless – as parents and (2) determine which couple, out of the many ‚suitable‘ applicants, fits best to a specific child. The „Recommendations for Adoption“, which have served as a guide for adoption agents for a good 40 years, provide the basis of our grounded theory-oriented analysis. They enable us to capture the variability of the normative pattern of good parenthood and childhood. A shift in the evaluation criteria – from ‚objective‘ status (e. g. age, marital status) to self-reflective subject – becomes evident, despite the continued focus on the middle class.