Research Invitation

The below invitation for participation is being posted on behalf of the researcher. If you are interested in participating, be sure to reply directly to Ms. Strassberg via her email address below. PEAR is not sponsoring or otherwise involved in the research project or its funding, we are posting this purely as a public service in support of improving pre-adoption services and education.

************************************************************************************************
Dear Parents,

I invite you to participate in a study of adoptive parents that focuses on your pre-adoption decisions. I hope to gain a more accurate picture of the decision making process involved in international adoption, particularly surrounding the choice of birth country. I am looking for parents who have adopted a child internationally within the past 25 years from three different geographic areas: Africa and the Caribbean Islands, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. I am asking parents to participate in a phone interview that will last about one hour. To compensate you for your time, I will provide an online $15 gift certificate to a store of your choice. If you are willing to be interviewed, please let me know, and I will get in touch with you to arrange a time to talk by phone.

I am a senior Psychology and Education major at Mount Holyoke College. My cousin was adopted from Ethiopia, and my cousin’s struggles though the decision-making process of where and how to adopt led me to this investigation. This study is my senior thesis project, and I am working under the direction of my thesis advisor Patricia Ramsey, who is an adoptive parent.

The pre-adoption decision-making process has not been studied in depth. It is my hope this project will provide a better understanding of adoptive parent’s choices and lead to better services and guidelines for supporting families through these decisions. Participants, please send me an email if you wish to participate at stras20s@mtholyoke.edu or leave me a message at (617) 680-9086 so I can schedule an interview time.

Thank you very much for considering my request, and please contact me or my advisor Patricia Ramsey (pramsey@mtholyoke.edu) if you have questions. If you have friends who might be willing to complete this survey, please send them my email or send their email addresses to me.

Thank you!

Sophie Strassberg, stras20s@mtholyoke.edu

People for Ethical Adoption Reform
www.pear-now.org