Date of Award

12-2018

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Departmental Honors

Department

Psychology

Abstract

Adoption faces stigmas from society which affects peoples' perceptions of adoptees, their birth parents, and adoptive parent s; one of the most prominent being that adoption is the "second best" route to getting children (Baxter, Norwood, Asbury, & Scharp , 2014). Adoption success is mixed with some adapting well, while others have negative experience s. Studying themes about how and why negative adoption experiences happen could be beneficial to preventing them in the future. There is a unique perspective between parents and children and so the central research question for this study is: how do children describe their negative adoption experiences? Facebook, adoption comments were analyzed from January 2017-November 2018 on an adoption dedicated page. The comments were coded and analyzed for themes that reappeared that could indicate negative adoption experiences. The posts revealed themes including loss of family or identity, lies, rejection, and rights to birth records and knowledge. Overall, these themes illuminate negative adoption experiences and hold important implications for practitioners and counselors.

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Faculty Mentor

Timothy Curran

Departmental Honors Advisor

Jennifer Grewe

Capstone Committee Member

Kristine Miller