Reconstructing Parental Personal Identity across the Adoption of a Child with Achondroplasia: A Narrative Inquiry

Virdha Emmalianna Yudha, Elga Andriana, S.Psi., M.Ed., Ph.D

2026 | Tesis | S2 Psikologi

Studi ini mengeksplorasi bagaimana orang tua adopsi membangun ulang identitas personal sebagai orang tua setelah pengalaman infertilitas dan setelah mengadopsi seorang anak dengan ciri akondroplasia. Menggunakan pendekatan narrative inquiry, penelitian ini melibatkan satu pasangan orang tua adopsi di Indonesia melalui tiga wawancara naratif berurutan, didukung photo elicitation dan observasi non-partisipan. Analisis dilakukan secara iteratif melalui penyusunan teks interim, memo analitik, dan member checking dengan memperhatikan dimensi waktu, relasi, dan konteks. Temuan menunjukkan bahwa rekonstruksi identitas tidak terjadi melalui diagnosis atau resolusi, melainkan melalui kerja moral dan naratif yang berkelanjutan, ditandai oleh ketahanan, keheningan, sikap pasrah, serta tanggung jawab yang berorientasi ke masa depan. Meskipun hidup dalam keluarga yang sama, rekonstruksi identitas ini banyak dijalani secara personal, lalu secara perlahan menjadi selaras melalui praktik sehari-hari seperti menunggu, menahan diri, dan belajar dari respons anak. Konsep-konsep seperti “rezeki” berfungsi sebagai sumber makna yang membantu orang tua menyeimbangkan usaha dan penerimaan tanpa memaknai keadaan sebagai kegagalan moral.

This study explores how adoptive parents reconstruct parental personal identity following infertility and the adoption of a child later understood to have features consistent with achondroplasia. Using narrative inquiry, three sequential interviews were conducted with one adoptive mother and one adoptive father, supported by photo elicitation and non-participant observation. Data were analysed through iterative re-storying using interim texts, analytic memos, and member checking across time, sociality, and place. The findings show that identity reconstruction does not occur through diagnosis or resolution, but through ongoing moral and narrative labour shaped by endurance, silence, surrender (“pasrah”; resigned acceptance), and future-oriented responsibility. Although the parents share the same family life, identity work is carried largely in solitude and becomes aligned through everyday practices of restraint, waiting, and parent–child mirroring. A moral deadlock emerges at the intersection of adoption and disability, rendering differences ethically unsafe to name. Concepts such as “rezeki” (divinely given fortune or blessing) function as narrative resources that allow agency and acceptance to coexist without moral failure.

Kata Kunci : adoptive parent identity, identity reconstruction, infertility, disability, narrative inquiry