Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1984. / Typescript. Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 141).

Diss. Univ. Kiel, 1999.

Undergraduate honors paper--Mount Holyoke College, 2006. Dept. of Psychology and Education. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 82-84).

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- Virginia Commonwealth University, 2004. / Title from title-page of electronic thesis. Prepared for: School of Social Work. Bibliography: p. 222-236.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Wilmington, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves: 99-116)

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2006. / Title from title screen (site viewed May 23, 2007). PDF text: ix, 198 p. ; 1.88Mb UMI publication number: AAT 3236912. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche formats.

Texte remanié de: Diss--Rechts- und Wirtschaftswissenschaftlich Fakultät$--Universität des Saarlandes, 1989. / Bibliogr. p. 347-366. Index.

This multi-layered and multi-perspective inquiry focuses on adult adoptees’ sense-making of, and presentation of, their sexuality and self/identity. It is situated firmly within postmodern and social constructionist traditions, whereby both the personal/particular and social/shared dimensions of experiences are negotiated, disenfranchised/marginalised voices are privileged, and the distinctions between, research, art and therapy are disrupted. Due to the adoptees being placed in, and conceived as, marginalised group members, their local and marginalised voices are privileged within this thesis. The aims of this research were:  To gain access to, and gather, adult adoptee’s personal narratives/stories around the subject of their sexuality, their sexual identity and their adoption;  To give ‘voice’ to adult adoptees around the subject of sexuality and adoption;  To represent, and then present, these narratives/stories, honouring both the individual particulars of ‘lived experience’ and also to highlight any shared thematic qualities of the participants. A bricolage approach was used, using Kinchloe and Berry’s (2004) formalised theoretical concept of the ‘POET’ (the point of entry text). To capture the multiplicity of the research, and the POETs, a three-phase approach was applied. Phase one incorporated my auto-ethnographic account, of my lived experience of sexuality as an adoptee, through an analysis of my narratives and poems. Phase two explored the participants’ understanding, and presentation of, their sexuality from the analysis of their interview data. These data were analysed through a heuristic approach, developing individual depictions, a group depiction and then a final creative synthesis. In phase three, an interpretative phenomenological analysis, was applied to highlight thematic individual and shared themes of the participants’ data, to present a more structured and thematic representation. The data from phase one, two and three, highlighted the vulnerability, and cultural socio-political constructs, that can affect the self-formation and sexuality of an adoptee. The data from phase three established four superordinate themes: 1. Sexual attitudes, 2. Vulnerability, 3. The ‘Other’, and 4. The Feminine. The research demonstrates that adult adoptees, as vulnerable, are more open and susceptible to external influence regarding their sexuality and self-formation, and proposes an ‘inherent potential toward vulnerability’ within the adoptee. Therefore, there is a relationship between the adoptee, as inherently vulnerable, and how they constitute their sexuality and self-formation. Implications for practice require careful ethical consideration of the adoptees’ inherent vulnerability and how this impacts their sexuality and self-formation. These considerations for good practice/therapeutic intervention are underpinned by an awareness of potential ethical, political and social issues regarding the adoptee’s susceptible influence by the ‘other’. Therefore, an awareness of how ‘non-directive practice’ can be integrated ethically by the practitioner is emphasised. These implications are not always evident in counselling/psychotherapy training and supervision, and therefore need careful consideration by the practitioner at a personal level, and in relation to social policy, when working with adoptees.

L’objectif de notre travail est d’explorer les jeux et les enjeux inter et intra familiaux significatifs qui ont conduit à l’acte d’adoption chez des couples ayant une descendance biologique. Nous tenterons de montrer en quoi l’importation d’un enfant issu d’une autre lignée est signifiante dans leur filiation, au regard de leurs romans familiaux respectifs. La population étudiée est constituée de cinq couples ayant des enfants biologiques au moment de l’adoption plénière d’un enfant venu « d’ailleurs ». Il s’agit d’une adoption internationale et donc visible, témoignant d’une rupture avec le biologique, puisque les enfants adoptés sont tous issus d’un pays d’Afrique Noire. L’objectif de ce travail de recherche se distingue des travaux décrits, dans la mesure où notre intérêt porte essentiellement sur l’appropriation de l’acte d’adopter, à la fois par le couple d’adoptants et par chacun des membres de ce couple. L’analyse discursive se situant au cœur de notre travail, c’est à travers le discours du couple, lors d’entretiens communs puis de chacun de ses membres dans le cadre d’entretiens individuels, que nous examinerons les raisons qui les amènent à souhaiter être parents d’un enfant de couleur. La démarche choisie est clinique et fondée sur l’analyse discursive. / The aim of our work is to explore the significance of inter and intra-familial issues that have led to the act of adoption in couples with children of different biological descent. We will try to show how the adoption of a child from another lineage is significant in their filiation, in relation to their respective family romance. The studied population consists of five couples with biological children at the time of the adoption of a child coming from "elsewhere". The international adoption clearly shows a difference with their own biological offspring, since the adopted children are all from an African country and are of a different race. The aim of this research differs from other referenced work, insofar as our interest focuses on the act of adopting by both members of this couple. As discourse analysis is at the heart of our work, it is through the discourse of the couple, during joint interviews and then by each of its members in the context of individual interviews, that we examine the reasons that lead them to wish to be parents of a child of a different ethnicity. The chosen approach is clinical and based on discursive analysis.

Background: In the past decade, distance education enrollment has become more common in colleges and universities, increasing from 1.6 million students in 1998 to an estimated 6.7 million in 2012. The purpose of this study was to identify which constructs in Rogers' (2003) diffusion of innovation theory are more likely to contribute to adoption and diffusion of distance education in health education. Health education instructors and faculty can use the information obtained from the results of this study if they want to implement distance education. Methods: A quantitative, cross-sectional, descriptive, and correlational survey design was used in this study. An instrument designed to measure constructs and factors affecting the adoption and diffusion of distance education in health education were developed for the study. Health educators employed by health education departments listed in the AAHE (2011) Directory (N=498) were contacted by email and asked to participate in this study. The survey was distributed through SurveyMonkeyTM survey software that was activated December 2012 - January 2013. Results and Conclusions: A total of 245 health education faculty completed the instrument, but 21 participants were omitted because they did not complete at least 95% of the survey instrument. A total of 224 survey instruments were retained and included in the analysis, providing a 44.9% response rate. Based on the Pearsons correlation and multiple linear regression it can be concluded that the likelihood of distance education adoption by health education faculty is highly dependent on the communication channels and characteristics of the innovation (distance education) constructs of the diffusion of innovation theory. There was a large majority of participants in the early majority adopter category and this is because of two reasons. The first reason is that participants had not decided whether to accept or reject distance education. The other reason is that distance education is a relatively new innovation and it has not fully diffused through the health education profession. Experience with distance education was not shown to increase the likelihood of distance education adoption because the majority of participants have not yet decided whether to accept or reject distance education. The social system construct was the least predictive of distance education adoption. If distance education has not yet fully diffused through the health education profession then it is hard for the social system to impact the likelihood of distance education adoption.