Adolescent Search for Birthparents: Who Moves Forward?

Document Type

Article

Abstract

The decision to search for birthparents is one that all adopted persons consider. The focus of this study is to describe, for a group of adopted adolescents, who chooses to search and who does not and to explore how search behavior is related to the functioning of the adolescents 'adoptive families and adolescents 'psychological adjustment. Participants in the study included 93 adolescents whose contact with birthparents ranged from no contact or information about birthparents to those who had some information but no direct contact with birthparents. Adolescents who indicated no desire to search for their birthparents and those who indicateda desire to search or had searched were included in the study. Older adolescents who experienced some openness in their adoption, were the least satisfied with that adoptive openness, and were preoccupied with their adoptive status were most likely to search. Search behavior was not related to family functioning or adolescent problem behavior.

Department(s)

Psychology

Publication Title

Journal of Adolescent Research

Volume

19

Issue

1

First Page

132

Last Page

151

Publication Date

1-1-2004

DOI

10.1177/0743558403258125

ISSN

07435584

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS