133 The Professional Counselor | Volume 13, Issue 2 Table 1 Participant Information No. % Gender Expression Female 3 42.86 Male 4 57.14 Race Asian American 1 14.28 White 3 42.86 Hispanic/Latino(a) 3 42.86 Current Age 20–29 3 42.86 40–49 1 14.28 50–59 1 14.29 60–69 2 28.57 Age at Adoption 0–9 Months 6 85.71 After 9 Months 1 14.29 Adoption Circumstances Initially Placed in Foster Care 4 57.14 Learned Was Adopted as a Kid 7 100.00 Domestic 6 85.71 International 1 14.29 Reunion Status Contact With Birth Family 4 57.14 No Contact With Birth Family 3 42.86 5-Point Likert Scale Ratings of Loss/Grief Toward Adoption w/ 1 (minimal)–5 (extreme) Rating 1 2 28.57 Rating 2 1 14.29 Rating 3 0 0.00 Rating 4 2 28.57 Rating 5 2 28.57 Participants Nine prospective participants responded to study advertisements and during the initial screening the final pool was narrowed to seven, with one respondent not meeting the inclusion criteria and another one withdrawing from communication with the research team. The final seven respondents accepted the invitation to participate and were emailed the informed consent form to formalize their participation status. The participant sample included four males and three females, and the ethnicity/race breakdown identified by each participant was: one Asian American, three White, and three Hispanic/Latino(a). Six of the adoptions were domestic and one was international (see Table 1). Smaller sample sizes and lack of randomization are common with phenomenological studies because of the level of data analysis and the need for participants to share a common experience (Nicholls, 2009). We assigned participants pseudonyms for confidentiality (Sheperis et al., 2017), which were used in the analysis and writing processes.
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