To Search or Not to Search: Examining Factors that Affect Adoptees’ Decision to Seek Out Their Birth Parents
Abstract
The phenomenon of searching for birth parents by adoptees has been explored over the last few decades, however, limited attention has been paid to the factors that influence adoptees to search or not to search. The limited established literature on this topic has shown that the outcomes of adoptees developing or attempting to develop relationships with their birth parents are more often negative. As such, it would be helpful to better understand the underlying factors (e.g., demographic factors. attitude towards adoption, attachment style, relationship with adoptive parents) that might motivate an adoptee to search vs not search for their birth parents. Participants (N=328) completed an online survey including the Measure of Attachment Questionnaire (MAQ), the Parental Bonding Inventory (PBI) and the Adoption Dynamic Questionnaire (ADQ). Two-way ANOVAs and linear regression were used to examine whether gender, age of finding out one is adopted, being of a different ethnic background from adoptive parents, secure attachment, perceived care of adoptive parents and attitude towards adoption had any effect on the choice to search for one’s birth parents or not. As hypothesized, it was found that adoptees are more likely to search for their birth parents if they are of a different ethnic background than their adoptive parents, are more preoccupied with their own adoption, and score lower on perceived care of adoptive parents. Contrary to the hypotheses, searchers also score higher on secure attachment and lower on positive affect towards adoption. An interaction affect was found between gender and search group when looking at scores on the MAQ, PBI and ADQ subscales. These findings have important implications for future research on adoptees and for counselors working with this population and what leads to the choice to search for birth parents or not.
Subject Area
Counseling Psychology|Psychology|Mental health
Recommended Citation
Sammis, Katherine, "To Search or Not to Search: Examining Factors that Affect Adoptees’ Decision to Seek Out Their Birth Parents" (2023). ETD Collection for Pace University. AAI30419687.
https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/dissertations/AAI30419687
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