Eugenia Scabini

Eugenia Scabini is Professor Emeritus of Social Psychology at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Milan (Italy). She was the Director of the Family Studies and Research University Centre from 1979 to 2011 and she is currently the President of the scientific committee. She was the Dean of the Faculty of Psychology from 1999 to 2011.

Together with Vittorio Cigoli, she developed the Relational-Symbolic Model for the study of family relationships. The model is internationally wellknown.

She taught Family Psychology in the bachelor, master, and in several postgraduate trainings. 

Eugenia Scabini authored and co-authored more than 300 publications in national and international journals and several books.

Title of presentation: Adoption as a form of generativity: the Relational-Symbolic Approach

The relational-symbolic model sees adoption as a radical form of parenting and the oldest form of human generativity. Adoption reveals the true nature of the challenge inherent in the family relationship: how to turn something that is different (in this case from a different origin) into something literally familiar, a part of the family. Authors will discuss the specific aspects of this family transition by providing theoretical as well as empirical research evidence.