Search and Rescue

Abstract

SUMMARY This paper is a critique of a research program carried out by the Search Institute of Minnesota. The report, “Growing Up Adopted,” was printed and distributed by the organization itself, and accompanied by grandiose media claims. “The Largest Study Ever of Adoptive Families in the United States,” it promised to open new vistas on an old subject. Elegantly turned out, the 1994 report shows sets of data built on questionable research methods resulting in inapplicable if comforting conclusions. At the heart of the report is a section specifically directed to ideas and concepts derived from Kirk's work. It highlights the questionable methodology and misleading conclusions of the report as a whole. Whereas Part I of this critique deals with weaknesses in the Search Institute's current research, Part II looks back to data produced by an earlier research program carried out under the same auspices. A decade ago similar problems as those posed in the current study had been explored there. Not only were si...