[The international adoption waiting period: waiting experience and coping strategies]

The adoption waiting period is a powerful stressor that can affect the well-being and configuration of future family life. Adoption research and practice have not paid enough attention to this phase. The principal aim of this study is to address prospective adoptive parents' experience of and coping with this period. For this purpose, 63 families answered a feelings scale, a coping resources scale and a needs questionnaire, all elaborated for the study. Results show that a shorter length of waiting time, using cognitive and learning coping strategies and associative participation were related to a better general experience of adoption whereas process-centred strategies were related to a worse experience of adoption. Families would like to see more speed in the process, more warmth and humanity in their relation with institutions and better information about their expedients. We conclude by proposing some activities and services during the waiting period that could be useful for post adoption.