Abstract
We may assume that the number of children in the population brought up by non-biological parents will grow. The reasons are significant social and demographical changes affecting the traditional family: low marriage rate, high divorce rate and starting new families with new parents, decreasing fertility and related assisted reproduction with other people's genetic material), efforts for deinstitutionalization and starting foster families, parenthood of LGBT couples.
This situation raises many questions concerning the identity of family and their members. The identity of children and communication with them is becoming a serious ethical issue requiring professional interdisciplinary recommendations of experts, not the trial and error method.
Which role may social work in this context play? How to meet the need for reliable psychosocial bond of the child to an adult person and how to ensure his/her healthy psychosocial development avoiding mistakes often repeated in the past? On which work positions could social workers support effective communication between parents and their children? How could social workers support resilience and identity of the family? The paper aims to provide basic information and dilemmas of this issue and to show new challenges for social work.