Date
4-2022
Department
Rawlings School of Divinity
Degree
Doctor of Education in Christian Leadership (EdD)
Chair
Gary Bredfeldt
Keywords
Adoption Professional, Birth Mother, Adoptive Parents, Open Adoption, Leadership
Disciplines
Leadership Studies | Social and Behavioral Sciences
Recommended Citation
Colls, Vicki K., "Leadership Influence: Adoption Professional, Birth Mother, and Adoptive Parents’ Knowledge of Open Adoption" (2022). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 3459.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/3459
Abstract
Adoption needs a minimum of three sets of participants: the birth mother, the adoptive parents, and the adoptive professionals. Being the adoption expert, the adoption professional leads all parties through the process of adoption. However, as adoption research grows, it focuses on the adoptee, birth mother, and adoptive parents but rarely on the adoption professional. As the central figure in the adoption process, the assumption is the adoption professional would be the primary influencer affecting the culture of adoption practices. The purpose of this quantitative descriptive, correlational study was to evaluate if a relationship exists between the adoptive professional's leadership and the existence of open adoption knowledge experienced by the birth mother and the adoptive parents controlling for the birth mother, adoptive parents, and adoption professionals for adoptions between 2010-2020. In addition, this study used quantitative methods to discover if the adoption triad members believe the adoption professional’s leadership contributed to the knowledge of openness in adoption. A Likert scale was disbursed to birth mothers, adoptive parents, and adoption professionals to discover the adoption professional's role in their knowledge of open adoption. The Likert scale to the adoption professional asked about their thoughts on open adoption and their role in the process. Descriptive statics were used to analyze the results from the birth mothers and adoptive parents, and inferential statistics were used to analyze the results of the adoption professionals. The results showed that adoption professionals educate birth parents and adoptive parents about open adoption, and adoption professionals educate about the option of open adoption regardless of their age.
