Category
Social Science
Faculty Mentor
Steven Berman
Faculty Mentor Primary Department
Department of Psychology
Year of Presentation
2019
Project Abstract, Summary, or Creative Statement
Although previous studies have found adopted children and adolescents to be higher in dissociation and rejection sensitivity, this has only been studied in adults using groups recruited through Amazon’s Mechanical-Turk (MTurk). Also, while previous studies have demonstrated that adopted individuals have higher rates of identity issues, the relationship between identity, dissociation, and rejectivity among adopted individuals has never been studied. The primary purpose of this study was to quantitatively examine dissociation, rejection sensitivity, and identity distress among adopted adults. A further purpose was to provide a comparison group of adopted adults independent of those recruited through MTurk, as the reliability of this recruitment method has never previously been tested in this population.
Participants included 388 adoptees and 151 non-adopted individuals who completed an online survey. Significant differences were found between adopted and non-adopted groups on dissociation, rejection sensitivity, and identity. Both rejection sensitivity and dissociation were found to be significant mediators of identity distress. Significant differences were found between MTurk, and Social Media recruited adoptees on dissociation, identity distress, and rejection sensitivity. Implications for consideration in a clinical setting are discussed as well as potential areas for future research.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Keywords
adoption, adoptee, dissociation, identity, identity distress, rejection sensitivity, adult, quantitative
Dissociation, Identity Distress, and Rejection Sensitivity in Adult Adoptees