Adult adoptees, engaged in various aspects of searching for their birth parents, from no involvement to reunion, participated in a questionnaire study of factors that predicted degree of searching activity. Increased searching was found to be related to a traumatic adoption revelation, knowledge of circumstances of birth and adoption, strained adoptive family relationships, poor self-concept, the experiencing of stressful life events and a belief that having been adopted made one feel different and incomplete. Reasons offered by searchers for their involvement included a desire to know their geneological history, to increase their sense of identity and to establish a relationship with birth parents. Non-searchers stated that they did not search because of fear of hurting either adoptive or birth parents, and satisfaction with identity as children of adoptive parents. Methodological and clinical issues raised in view of these results were discussed.
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Sobol et al. (1983) studied this question.