Dar a un hijo en adopción frente a elegir criarlo uno mismo
Si actúas
Entregar al hijo en adopción
38%
Si no actúas
Criar al hijo
8,0%
Porcentaje de quienes luego se arrepienten de cada elección. Las barras y el registro completo aparecen abajo.
Familia
Última revisión 2026-05-02
Calidad de la evidencia 4.25/5
Puntuación de revisión en ocho dimensiones según la
rúbrica de calidad
. Cada dimensión puntuada de 1 a 5.
D1 Verificación de fuentes
5/5
D2 Autoridad e independencia de las fuentes
4/5
D3 Precisión de la tasa de arrepentimiento
3/5
D4 Comparabilidad de las fuentes
3/5
D5 Patrón de Gilovich
5/5
D6 Calidad de la prosa
5/5
D7 Completitud de las advertencias
5/5
D8 Calidad de la muestra
4/5
Media4.25/5
Arrepentimiento por acción
Entregar al hijo en adopción
38%
38% de las madres biológicas reporta duelo sustancial a los 6 meses post-colocación (proxy de duelo)
Madres biológicas jóvenes que colocaron infantes para adopción a través de 30 residencias de maternidad y agencias en 13 estados de EE.UU.
6 meses post-colocación
Arrepentimiento por inacción
Criar al hijo
8,0%
~7-8% de los padres reporta arrepentirse de haber tenido hijos (arrepentimiento parental general, mejor proxy disponible)
Padres estadounidenses y alemanes, encuestas de población (proxy — ningún estudio ha encuestado directamente a padres que consideraron la entrega y eligieron criar)
Transversal; encuestas realizadas entre adultos estadounidenses ≥45 y adultos alemanes ≥18
% que se arrepienten de esta elección
Entregar al hijo en adopciónCriar al hijo
38%8,0%
action dominates — Domina la acción — la mayoría se arrepiente de actuar.
Decisiones relacionadas
Decisiones semánticamente similares — mismo terreno, distintos compromisos.
38% of birth mothers who place an infant for adoption report substantial grief at 6 months post-placement — roughly five times the rate of general parental regret among those who raise their children. Cushman, Kalmuss & Namerow (1993) documented this figure in a multistate US sample of 215 young birth mothers across 30 agencies in 13 states; a further 27% reported “some” grief at the same timepoint. Madden et al. (2018) — the most contemporary study, n=223 US birth mothers surveyed across placements made between 1993 and 2018 — found a mean satisfaction with relinquishment score of 3.11 on a five-point scale, sitting just above the midpoint, with satisfaction declining further the more years had elapsed since placement. Two variables predicted higher satisfaction: current contact with the adopted child and full-time employment, neither of which is universally available. A 1982 clinical study by Rynearson, drawn from a small psychiatric sample (n=20), documented that only 30% of relinquishing mothers expressed comfort with the adoption; the broader literature review by Askren and Bloom (1999) identified chronic grief as a recurring theme across studies from 1978 through 1994.
The inaction side — what happens to parents who considered relinquishment and chose instead to raise the child — has almost no dedicated evidence. The best available proxy is general population surveys of parental regret: Piotrowski (2021, PLOS ONE), synthesizing US and German survey data, estimates that roughly 7–8% of parents would choose not to have children if they could decide again. The Turnaway Study provides a narrower analogue — women denied abortion who parented reported only 4% regret at five years — though those women sought abortions rather than adoption placements, limiting comparability. Neither figure captures the specific subgroup of birth parents who weighed placement and then chose to parent; that population has not been surveyed directly.
The asymmetry supports an action-dominates pattern, consistent with Gilovich and Medvec’s framework: the active choice to relinquish generates measurable, persistent grief and dissatisfaction in a substantial minority, while raising a child — even an unintended one — tends toward adaptation and acceptance over time. The long time horizon matters: relinquishment grief is not typically acute and resolved, but often delayed and chronic, with Madden et al. finding dissatisfaction intensifying rather than fading with years. The structural confounders are substantial. Coercion history and adoption openness interact powerfully with outcomes; contemporary voluntary open adoptions with ongoing contact produce substantially better results than the closed adoptions that dominated the 1993 cohort. The 0.38 rate should be read as applicable to the mixed-era, mixed-openness population from which it was drawn; the true rate for contemporary voluntary open-adoption placements is almost certainly lower.
Fuentes: acción
Registro de evidencia
Cada número a continuación es lo que reportó cada fuente, con la cita textual en la que nos basamos y cómo llegamos a nuestra cifra. Haz clic en cualquier enlace para verificarlo directamente.
[1]Social Work / Cushman, Kalmuss & Namerow — Placing an Infant for Adoption: The Experiences of Young Birth Mothers
Revisado por pares
38% of birth mothers felt 'a lot of grief' at 6 months post-placement; 27% felt 'some' grief (n=215, multistate US)
Extracto
“"At 6 months after placement, 38% of the placer sample reported feeling a lot of grief, and 27% reported feeling some grief. Higher levels of grief were found in birth mothers whose babies went to foster placement prior to adoptive placement. The majority of birth mothers found signing the adoption papers to be one of the most difficult parts of the adoption process."
”
Datos de la fuente de
1993-05-01
Accedido
2026-05-02
Cálculo
Cushman, Kalmuss & Namerow (1993) interviewed 215 young women who placed infants through 30 maternity residences and agencies in 13 states — the largest contemporary US multistate birth-mother sample at time of publication. At 6 months post-placement, 38% reported "a lot of grief" and 27% "some grief," making the total experiencing significant grief 65%. We use the "a lot of grief" binary (38%) as the action-side rate because it most closely tracks persistent distress rather than transient sadness. The 6-month timeframe may underestimate lifetime rates: Madden et al. (2018) found satisfaction declined further over time, and the broader chronic-grief literature (Askren & Bloom 1999 review) identifies enduring grief in 40–50% of birth mothers across studies. The grief construct is a proxy for regret; grief and satisfaction are empirically distinct but correlated in this population.
[2]Families in Society / Madden, Ryan, Aguiniga, Killian & Romanchik — The Relationship Between Time and Birth Mother Satisfaction With Relinquishment
Revisado por pares
Mean satisfaction with relinquishment score 3.11 on a 1–5 scale; satisfaction declined with time since placement (n=223 US birth mothers)
Extracto
“"On a scale of 1 to 5, participants reported a mean satisfaction with relinquishment score of 3.11. Time since relinquishment, age of the respondent, education level, and income had a significant inverse relationship with birth mothers' satisfaction to place their child for adoption. The more time that has passed since the birth mothers placed their child, the less overall satisfaction some birth mothers felt."
”
Datos de la fuente de
2018-06-01
Accedido
2026-05-02
Cálculo
Madden et al. (2018) surveyed 223 contemporary US birth mothers who placed an infant in the prior 25 years; n=223 is the anchor for the secondary source. The mean satisfaction score of 3.11/5 and its inverse relationship with time corroborate that the 38% acute grief rate from Cushman 1993 persists and may intensify long-term. This study does not publish a binary regret rate but confirms the direction. Two predictors of higher satisfaction — current contact with the adopted child and full-time employment — were present in only a subset of respondents, suggesting 38% is a conservative estimate for the broader birth-mother population.
Fuentes: inacción
Registro de evidencia
Cada número a continuación es lo que reportó cada fuente, con la cita textual en la que nos basamos y cómo llegamos a nuestra cifra. Haz clic en cualquier enlace para verificarlo directamente.
[1]PLOS ONE / Piotrowski — How many parents regret having children and how it is linked to their personality and health: Two studies with national samples in Poland
Revisado por pares
7–8% of parents in US and German population surveys reported regretting having children
Extracto
“"On the basis of the surveys conducted in the US and in Germany, it was assumed that the percentage of parents regretting having a child could be around 7–8%."
”
Datos de la fuente de
2021-07-22
Accedido
2026-05-02
Cálculo
Piotrowski (2021) synthesizes prior US and German survey evidence arriving at a 7–8% prevalence of parental regret in general population samples. This is an imperfect proxy for the inaction side: it measures regret among all parents, not among the specific subgroup who weighed relinquishment and chose to parent. No peer- reviewed study has measured regret among birth parents who considered and declined adoption. The Turnaway Study (Foster et al. 2020) is cited as a partial analogue — 4% of women denied abortion who carried to term expressed regret at 5 years — but those women sought abortions, not adoption placements. We use 0.08 (midpoint of the 7–8% range) as the primary inaction rate. The true rate for parents who specifically considered adoption before choosing to parent has not been measured; it may exceed 8% if their circumstances (ambivalence, resource constraints, social pressure) differ systematically from the general population.
[2]ANSIRH / University of California, San Francisco — The Turnaway Study↗ 1 other entry
Estudio primario
By 5 years after being denied an abortion, 96% of women who carried to term indicated they were glad they had kept their pregnancies (4% regret)
Extracto
“"By five years after being denied an abortion, 96% of women turned away indicated they were glad they had kept their pregnancies. One week after being turned away, 60% of the women expressed happiness over their pregnancies. Right after the baby was born, 88% of women no longer wished they had had an abortion."
”
Datos de la fuente de
2022-06-15
Accedido
2026-05-02
Cálculo
The Turnaway Study followed ~1,000 women at 30 US facilities; the turnaway subgroup (~231 denied abortion) forms the relevant comparison. Only ~9% of turnaways pursued adoption; the majority parented. The 4% regret figure at 5 years is the lowest bound for the inaction side, but these women sought abortion — not adoption — so the comparator is imprecise. We cite Turnaway as a corroborating floor showing similarly low inaction regret and use the Piotrowski 7–8% as primary.
Advertencias
La evidencia sobre los dos lados es profundamente asimétrica. El lado acción (entrega) tiene una literatura dedicada que abarca más de 40 años, con documentación consistente de duelo, pérdida y satisfacción reducida a través de múltiples países y diseños de estudio. El lado inacción (criar un hijo que se consideró entregar) tiene casi nula literatura dedicada: ningún estudio revisado por pares ha medido directamente el arrepentimiento entre mujeres que sopesaron la adopción y eligieron criar en su lugar. La tasa de inacción de 0,08 se toma prestada de encuestas de arrepentimiento parental de población general (Piotrowski 2021), la mayoría de las cuales nunca consideró la adopción en absoluto. El Turnaway Study proporciona un análogo parcial (mujeres a quienes se les negó el aborto y que criaron), pero esas mujeres buscaron el aborto, no la adopción, y los contextos difieren materialmente. La tasa lado acción (0,38) es la cifra directamente reportada de "mucho duelo" de Cushman, Kalmuss & Namerow (1993), una muestra multiestatal de EE.UU. de 215 madres biológicas a los 6 meses post-colocación. El duelo es un proxy para el arrepentimiento, no el arrepentimiento mismo; los dos constructos están empíricamente relacionados pero son distintos. Madden et al. (2018) encontró que la satisfacción disminuía aún más con el tiempo, sugiriendo que 0,38 es un piso en lugar de un techo para la insatisfacción de por vida. Rynearson (1982) encontró 70% de malestar en una pequeña muestra de pacientes psiquiátricos ambulatorios (n=20); esa cifra no se usa como tasa debido al sesgo de selección severo, pero corrobora que el duelo persistente en esta población está bien documentado. Tres confusores estructurales dominan esta comparación. Primero, historia de coerción: muchas madres biológicas — particularmente quienes colocaron antes de la década de 1990 — reportan sentir presión de la familia o agencias; la coerción es el predictor más fuerte de malos resultados, por lo que los estudios históricos sobreestiman el arrepentimiento en relación con las colocaciones voluntarias de hoy. Segundo, apertura de la adopción: las adopciones abiertas contemporáneas con contacto continuo producen resultados sustancialmente mejores que las adopciones cerradas (Cushman et al. 1997; Madden et al. 2018); la cifra de 0,38 deriva de una era en que la adopción abierta era menos común. Tercero, el estudio longitudinal de Namerow et al. de madres adolescentes encontró que las que criaban reportaban mayor arrepentimiento a los 4 años que las que entregaban — un hallazgo que apoyaría inaction_dominates — pero esta era una cohorte de embarazo adolescente y no se ha replicado en muestras adultas contemporáneas. La entrega de refugio seguro (entrega anónima de recién nacido) es un camino distinto, raramente estudiado, no capturado en ninguno de estos datos.
