Immediate Family

In the adoption community, the adoption process directly affects the immediate family in a dynamic and legally binding way.

Immediate family is generally defined as the closest, or most immediate, family members someone lives with. Usually this refers to the basic familial units. So, someone with the title of spouse, mother, father, child and sibling are one's immediate family. Stepchildren and adopted children are also legally included in the definition of members who make up an immediate family.

In addition to blood relation and adoption, immediate family is also determined by marriage. In some state laws, the legal definition of immediate family may include the grandparents and grandchildren.

Although adoption technically only affects the immediate family on paper, it emotionally affects an immediate family's extended family, friends, neighbors and the child's peers.

An immediate family is also important to define during the adoption application period because they may need to be present or accounted for during the home study. If a grandmother or stepchild may be living with the family at the time of adoption, this can change the dynamic of a household, which would require extra evaluation from a case worker. Sometimes, having a sibling in the household can make adjusting, as an older child adoptee, easier or particularly difficult. Testing to see how the personalities within an immediate family may interact is imperative to the success of a placement.