Abstract

This study quantitatively measures dissociation, rejection sensitivity, and identity distress among adults who experienced adoption as a child and the relationship between these factors. This study also compares groups of adoptees recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) and social media to assess whether these two recruitment methods achieve similar results. An online survey was conducted of adopted adults and non-adopted adults to serve as controls using both MTurk and social media. A total of 539 participants were recruited representing 151 non-adopted individuals recruited exclusively through Mturk, and 388 adoptees, 247 of whom were recruited through MTurk and 141 through social media. Significant differences were found between adopted and non-adopted groups on the measures of dissociation, rejection sensitivity, and identity. Both rejection sensitivity and dissociation were also found to be significant mediating factors between adoption status and measures of identity. Significant differences were also found between adoptee recruitment methods on measures of dissociation, identity distress and rejection sensitivity with large effect sizes for dissociation and identity distress and a small effect size for rejection sensitivity. Implications for consideration in a clinical setting are discussed as well as potential areas of future research.

Thesis Completion

2019

Semester

Fall

Thesis Chair/Advisor

Berman, Steven

Degree

Bachelor of Science (B.S.)

College

College of Sciences

Department

Psychology

Degree Program

Psychology

Language

English

Access Status

Open Access

Release Date

12-1-2019

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Included in

Psychology Commons

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