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Full-Text Articles in Psychology

Understanding Relational Competence In Emerging Adult Adoptees: A New Way To Conceptualize Competence In Close Relationships, Krystal K. Cashen Mar 2018

Understanding Relational Competence In Emerging Adult Adoptees: A New Way To Conceptualize Competence In Close Relationships, Krystal K. Cashen

Masters Theses

Relatively little research has focused on the positive adjustment of emerging adult adoptees (Palacios & Brodzinsky, 2010). Given the developmental context of emerging adulthood (Arnett, 2000), it is important to select a measure of adjustment that reflects the increased ambiguity seen in this time period. The present study aims to develop and validate a measure of relational competence, or competence in one’s closest relationship regardless of relationship type (i.e., romantic vs. nonromantic). This measure will be created by adapting the Romantic Competence Interview, a measure of romantic competence previously used with emerging adults (Shulman, Davila, & Shachar-Shapira, 2011). Participants …


The Role Of Adoptive Identity In Career Development Of College And Non-College Individuals, Yesel Yoon Nov 2016

The Role Of Adoptive Identity In Career Development Of College And Non-College Individuals, Yesel Yoon

Doctoral Dissertations

Identity development is a particularly salient developmental task that begins to take form during adolescence, and consolidation of multiple domains of identity is necessary for achieving successful outcomes in adulthood (Erikson, 1968). The purpose of this study was to examine the role of an ascribed adoptive identity on the individualization of one’s chosen career identity. Adoptive identity was examined using both individual and family-level factors, and career identity was measured across adolescence, emerging adulthood, and adulthood. The present study used a sub-sample of adoptees, adoptive mothers, and adoptive fathers from an ongoing longitudinal research study, the Minnesota/Texas Adoption Research Program …


Individuation As An Adolescent Developmental Task: Associations With Adoptee Adjustment, Danila Musante Nov 2014

Individuation As An Adolescent Developmental Task: Associations With Adoptee Adjustment, Danila Musante

Doctoral Dissertations

This study evaluated the associations between adolescent individuation and concurrent and long term adjustment in adoptive families. Individuation was assessed using an observational measure examining behaviors and communications demonstrative of individuality and connectedness between each parent and the adolescent. Findings did not support the hypothesized connection between adolescent individuation and concurrent and long term adjustment in adoptive families. However, further analyses revealed particular importance of connectedness between adolescent and parent for adolescent adjustment, which was found to vary by adolescent gender. Specifically, analyses revealed that gender interacts with both adolescent-father connectedness and mother-adolescent connectedness in predicting adolescent internalizing symptoms; for …


Emotion In Adoption Narratives: Links To Close Relationships In Emerging Adulthood, Holly A. Grant-Marsney Nov 2014

Emotion In Adoption Narratives: Links To Close Relationships In Emerging Adulthood, Holly A. Grant-Marsney

Doctoral Dissertations

An adopted person develops a narrative or story to help make sense of his or her adoption. This narrative provides a window into how the adoptee understands the role of adoption in his or her life and articulates feelings and thoughts about it. Adolescent and emerging adult adoptees’ data from the Minnesota-Texas Adoption Research Project (MTARP) were examined. MTARP longitudinally followed 190 adoptive kinship networks, with varying levels of openness in the adoption, from childhood to emerging adulthood. The current study sought to understand how emotion (affective valence and specific emotions), as identified in the adoption narratives during adolescence and …


The Lived Experience Of Adoption: Do Current Conceptualizations Reflect Changing Realities?, Quade Y. S. French Nov 2014

The Lived Experience Of Adoption: Do Current Conceptualizations Reflect Changing Realities?, Quade Y. S. French

Doctoral Dissertations

The lived experiences of four adopted college undergraduates were documented through a series of semi-structured interviews across a two-year period. Participants were interviewed during their engagement as mentors in an adoption-specific mentoring program (the Adoption Mentoring Program, AMP) in which they were each paired with an adopted child from the community in one-to-one relationships. Importantly, participation in the mentoring program offered mentors a chance to connect with same-aged peers around issues of adoption research, theory, and experiences. Participation in this program is viewed as a marked change in the social context of adoption experienced by participants; this social change provided …


"You Were Adopted?!": An Exploratory Analysis Of Microaggressions Experienced By Adolescent Adopted Individuals, Karin J. Garber Jan 2014

"You Were Adopted?!": An Exploratory Analysis Of Microaggressions Experienced By Adolescent Adopted Individuals, Karin J. Garber

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Sue et al. (2007, p. 271) define a microaggression as: “Brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative…slights and insults towards [the marginalized group].” Microaggressions have not been used to analyze the experiences of adoptees in a bionormative society. A total of 156 interviews (males=75, females=81) and questionnaires of White adolescent adoptees in same-race families were analyzed using a mixed methods design. Study 1 used thematic analysis to discover 16 themes of microaggressions. Study 2 used the microaggression as the unit of analysis in chi squares to determine if …


Rudd Chair Annual Report, 2013, Harold D. Grotevant Jan 2013

Rudd Chair Annual Report, 2013, Harold D. Grotevant

Rudd Adoption Research Program Annual Reports

2013 report from the Rudd Family Foundation Chair in Psychology. Includes information on community partnerships, goals reached, communications, teaching, mentoring, and service.


Rudd Chair Annual Report, 2011, Harold D. Grotevant Jan 2012

Rudd Chair Annual Report, 2011, Harold D. Grotevant

Rudd Adoption Research Program Annual Reports

No abstract provided.


Rudd Chair Annual Report, 2010, Harold D. Grotevant Jan 2011

Rudd Chair Annual Report, 2010, Harold D. Grotevant

Rudd Adoption Research Program Annual Reports

The second annual report of the Rudd Adoption Research Program.


Family Predictors Of Negative Instability In Adopted Emerging Adults, Danila S. Musante Jan 2010

Family Predictors Of Negative Instability In Adopted Emerging Adults, Danila S. Musante

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

This study evaluated the associations between filial relationships and young adults’ adjustment to the period of emerging adulthood in adoptive families. Adopted individuals’ attachment to their adoptive parents and affect about adoption were assessed at adolescence and young adulthood and compared with their feelings of negative instability about the period of emerging adulthood. Findings demonstrate that affect about adoption and attachment to each parent during adolescence and emerging adulthood are associated with negative instability in emerging adulthood. Specifically, individuals whose attachment to each parent and affect about their adoption remained high from adolescence to emerging adulthood had the lowest ratings …


Adoptee Information Seeking: Changes Between Adolescence And Emerging Adulthood And The Impact Of Adoption Communicative Openness, Brooke Alison Skinner-Drawz Jan 2009

Adoptee Information Seeking: Changes Between Adolescence And Emerging Adulthood And The Impact Of Adoption Communicative Openness, Brooke Alison Skinner-Drawz

Rudd Adoption Research Program Dissertations from UMass Amherst

This dissertation examined changes in information seeking intentions and behaviors between adolescence and emerging adulthood for a group of adoptees who did not have direct contact with birth relatives in adolescence. Associations between information seeking in emerging adulthood and life cycle events typical of emerging adulthood, gender, and Adoption Communicative Openness were also examined. Data from 119 adoptees and their adoptive mothers were used from Waves 2 (1996-2000) and 3 (2005-2008) of the Minnesota-Texas Adoption Research Project (Grotevant & McRoy, 1998). Degree of information seeking between adolescence (Wave 2) and emerging adulthood (Wave 3) increased for the majority of adoptees …


Many Faces Of Openness In Adoption: Perspectives Of Adopted Adolescents And Their Parents, Harold D. Grotevant, Gretchen Miller Wrobel, Lynn Von Korff, Brooke Skinner, Jane Newell, Sarah Friese, Ruth G. Mcroy Jan 2008

Many Faces Of Openness In Adoption: Perspectives Of Adopted Adolescents And Their Parents, Harold D. Grotevant, Gretchen Miller Wrobel, Lynn Von Korff, Brooke Skinner, Jane Newell, Sarah Friese, Ruth G. Mcroy

Rudd Publications

Parents and adolescents (mean age, 15.7 years) from 177 adoptive families participating in the second wave of the Minnesota/Texas Adoption Research Project were interviewed about their post-adoption contact arrangements. The sample included families with no contact, stopped contact, contact without meetings, and contact with face-to-face meetings between the adolescent and birth mother. Openness arrangements were dynamic, and different openness arrangements were associated with different experiences and feelings. Adoptive families with contact reported having higher levels of satisfaction about their openness arrangements, experiencing more positive feelings about the birth mother, and possessing more factual and personal knowledge about the birth mother …