February, 2010

• Study Participants needed for a study on the experiences of adult, Korean adoptees. This study is run by Kathy Caudill of Argosy University and Kim Langrehr, a doctoral student in Counseling Psychology, at Loyola University Chicago under the supervision of Dr. Eunju Yoon, at Loyola University Chicago. We’re hoping to interview adult, Korean adoptees that would be willing to participate in an individual interview addressing the following topics:1. general information regarding your adoption
  2. family relations
  3. identity development
  4. any experiences with racism
  5. prior experiences with mental health services related to adoption

  Participants must be 18 years and older that were born in Korea but adopted as an infant or young child by a Euro-American family and raised for the majority of their lives in American society. My intention is to gather real-life narratives of adult Korean adoptees, in order to inform, improve, and increase clinical awareness of issues specific to Korean adoptees in the field of mental health. Unlike formal interviews, this is an opportunity for the interviewee to tell their story, in a narrative form, describing significant life events that influenced their identity formation, adjustment, and well-being. I would like to conduct one face-to-face interview that should last 60 to 90 minutes. Your participation would be highly appreciated.

  If anyone would be interested, please contact Kathy Caudill at kcaudill000[at]yahoo[dot]com or 708-606-0707

• Study Participants needed for survey of Korean Adoptees who traveled to Korea and returned to their pre-Korea lives. Here’s the info from the study researchers:

* Currently 20 years or older
* Went to Korea at age 20 or older
* Went to Korea and RETURNED to pre-Korea life

There are only 49 questions, and it should take 20-30 minutes. Email us for the password at 2curiouskads [at] gmail [dot] com, and then proceed to this link: http://www.kwiksurveys.com/online-survey.php?surveyID=BIDNH_636365b6. Be sure to enable cookies before you start so you can go back later on if you need to.

Some of these questions might seem personal, but the more open and honest you can be the more helpful your responses will be for other adoptees. Please know that your responses are generated anonymously.
Here’s some info on us. We are Korean adoptees, 32 and 35 years old, who’ve been Korea 2-3 times. After we returned from Korea last year we felt isolated. Displaced. Confused. Unable to ease back into our pre-Korea lives. We wondered if other adoptees felt the same way. More importantly, if they didn’t, what had they done to prevent these feelings from manifesting? What sort of foundations, behaviors, life circumstances did they have in place that enabled them to feel rooted and connected when they returned? And how could this information offer support to other adoptees?

This is where you come in. If we get enough responses we will develop the results into a presentation for the IKAA Gathering in Seoul this summer so that your responses will help others just like you.


Much appreciation,
Rae Anne and Saebom