Study Volunteers Needed: Bonding of Mothers to Children With Special Needs

School of Psychology, Fielding Graduate University

Volunteers Needed For Research Study About How Adoptive Mothers Create Their Emotional Bond With Their Child Who Has Special Health Care Needs.

I am a doctoral student at Fielding Graduate University and am seeking volunteers to participate in my research study:

• Mothers need to be 25 years of age and older, in an intact heterosexual marriage, with an adopted child with special health care needs who is between 3 and 8 years of age and who will have lived in the adoptive home at least one year.
• Special health care needs: Developmental disabilities (such as cerebral palsy, spina bifida, Down syndrome, Fragile X syndrome, and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder) and/or chronic health conditions (such as congenital heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and asthma).
• The study cannot include, unfortunately, adoptive mothers of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders or reactive attachment disorder.

The time commitment would be approximately ninety minutes and the meeting would be arranged at the convenience of the participant. The volunteer’s confidentiality will be assured. The principal researcher of this study is April Fallon, Ph.D., Fielding Graduate University.

This research study has been reviewed and approved by the Fielding Graduate University Institutional Review Board. If you have any questions about the Fielding Institutional Review Board or Research Ethics review at Fielding, please contact Mike Meraz, Administrator, Institutional Review Board of Fielding Graduate University: mmeraz@fielding.edu or (805) 898-4033.

Interested mothers can contact Ileana Lindstrom, MA:

(410) 810-3916 or (410) 699-1161, or slindstrom@email.fielding.edu