So Tell Me A Little Bit About Yourself...
Tuesday, April 04 2006 Filed in: Adoption
Info
A popular thread on blogs is a list of questions
about you.
it might be something like"Favorite 5", where you list your 5 favorite, books, movies, places...
As this is a blog that's mostly about adoption I thought it would be good to use a different sort of list. What follows is the "autobiography" questionnaire the Social Worker for our adoption agency had us complete as part of our home study. The original format included space for the answers which pushed the length out to about 18 printed pages.
Take your time, and email me your answers!
A. CHILDHOOD
1. Date and place of birth:
2. Father’s name Residence:
Date of birth: Death:
3. Mother’s name Residence:
Date of birth: Death:
4. Parent’s date of marriage: . 4a. Divorce:
Remarriage: Father. Mother
5. Siblings (including step-siblings) their birth date, married/single, where they live
6. Describe your father’s role in your family, including employment.
7. Describe your mother’s role in your family, including employment.
8. Describe your parent’s personalities.
9. Describe your parent’s marriage.
10. If your parent’s were divorced, discuss why they divorced.
11. Discuss your parent’s prior or subsequent marriage.
12. Describe how your parents showed affection to each other.
13. Describe how your parents showed affection to you.
14. How did you parents comfort you?
15. How did your parents discipline you?
16. How did they criticize you?
17. How did they praise you?
18. How did they encourage you?
19. How did your parents solve problems?
20. What did your family do for fun?
21. What difficulties did you encounter as a child?
22. Describe your life growing up.
23. Name you siblings and describe your childhood relationship to them.
24. Were there other significant people in your life as a child? (Grandparent, aunt, cousin, etc?)
25. Describe your current relationship with each family member. How often do you see them?
B. EDUCATION
1. Name of high school:
Graduated? Year? If NO, why not?
Name of college:
Graduated? Year? Degree
2. What did you like about school?
3. What didn’t you like about school?
4. Do you have plans to further your education?
C. FRIENDSHIPS
1. Describe your past and current circle of friends.
2. Did your parents agree with your choice of friends?
3. At what age did you begin to date? Describe your early dating experiences.
D. ADULT LIFE EXPERIENCES
1. At what age did you consider yourself an adult?
2. Did your parents agree?
3. How old were you when you left home?
4. Did your parents approve?
5. How old were you when you started your first job?
6. Describe your employment history.
7. What do you see as your strengths?
8. What are your weaknesses?
9. Are there areas you would like to improve in?
10. How do you think others would describe your personality?
11. What kinds of activities do you like to do?
12. Who is your employer and what kind of work do you do?
13. How long have you worked at this job?
14. How do you handle job-related stress?
15. How does your job affect your home life?
16. Have you ever been arrested and/or convicted of a crime as an adult or juvenile? If so, please explain.
17. How frequently do you drink alcoholic beverages?
18. Do you use illegal drugs?
19. Please list all past and present medical problems.
20. Are you infertile? If yes, please describe attempts to solve fertility issues.
21. How have you dealt with infertility?
22. What is the biggest problem you have faced as an adult? Explain.
23. How patient are you? Please give examples of what makes you lose your temper.
E. CURRENT MARRIAGE
E1. When and where were you married?
1. Describe how, when, and where you met.
2. What attracted you to your spouse?
3. How long did you date?
4. Did your parents approve?
5. Describe your early adjustment problems.
6. What do you do together?
7. How do you handle disagreements?
8. Describe your last major disagreement and how it was resolved.
9. Describe your role in your family.
10. Describe your spouse’s role in your family.
11. How are your family finances handled? Who pays the bills, etc?
12. How do you feel about your spouse’s family?
13. Please describe your marriage in terms of emotional satisfaction.
14. Who did you learn about sex and sexual development from?
15. Do you plan to educate your children differently than you were educated?
16. Please describe any problems or differences of opinion you experience in your marriage.
17. How have you tried to solve these problems?
18. Describe what you like about your spouse.
19. What would you change about your spouse?
20. How do you and your spouse express affection toward each other?
21. Is this satisfactory to both?
22. How do you handle jealousy?
23. What religion are you? Are you active in this faith? How often do you go to church?
24. How important is religion in your life?
25. Describe your pets.
26. What are your future goals?
F. PREVIOUS MARRIAGE
1. Dates of marriage and divorce:
2. How many children from this marriage?
3. Who has custody?
4. Frequency of contact with children?
5. Describe the problems that led to the divorce in the above marriage(s).
6. What did you learn from that experience?
G. FAMILY
CHILDREN-- Please answer as many questions as possible, even if you have no children.
1. List names, ages, whether in or out of home, and any unusual problems or illnesses.
2. Describe each child’s personality.
3. What are your hopes for your children?
4. What are your fears for your children?
5. Describe the father’s family role.
6. Describe the mother’s family role.
7. Who will handle discipline and how?
8. Describe your child’s school experience.
9. How would you manage as a single parent?
10. Which is the most challenging stage of child development? Why?
11. How do you show your children that you love them?
12. How do your children know you approve of their behavior?
13. How do you criticize your children?
14. What is your personal philosophy on raising children?
15. What do you and your spouse agree about raising children?
16. What do you disagree on?
17. Are you now or will you in the future raise your children the same way you were raised?
18. What would you like to improve on as a parent?
19. How will adoption affect your biological children?
20. How will you help your biological children adjust to adoption?
21. What so you like to do with your children?
22. What responsibilities do you give your children?
H. OTHERS IN THE HOME
1. Name, age, and relationship:
2. What is this person's role in the family?
3. How will this person be affected by adoption?
4. How will you help this person adjust to the adoption?
I. HOME AND COMMUNITY
1. Describe your home.
2. What do you like best about your community?
3. What do you dislike about your home or community?
4. How do you divide household tasks?
5. What happens when family members “mess up” the house?
6. How long do you expect to live in your home and community?
7. What are the public schools in your area? (elem, mid, and high school)
8. Do you have special education facilities in your community?
9. Do you have mental health professionals in your community?
10. Do you have medical facilities in your community?
J. ADOPTION READINESS
1. Who first brought up the subject of adoption?
When and why?
2. What made you decide to pursue adoption?
3. What do your friends and family think about you pursuing adoption?
4. Why do you want to become adoptive parents?
K. ADOPTIVE CHILD’S BACKGROUND
1. How do you plan to explain adoption to your child and at what age will you begin?
2. If you are considering adopting a child of a different ethnicity than yours, please discuss your feelings about preserving and/or acknowledging the racial differences in the family.
3. How will you feel about your child’s inevitable questions about his/her birthparents?
4. How do you feel about your child eventually searching for his/her birthparents?
5. What would you do if your spouse decided to drop out of the adoption process?
6. Do you know other families who have adopted children? What has their experience been?
it might be something like"Favorite 5", where you list your 5 favorite, books, movies, places...
As this is a blog that's mostly about adoption I thought it would be good to use a different sort of list. What follows is the "autobiography" questionnaire the Social Worker for our adoption agency had us complete as part of our home study. The original format included space for the answers which pushed the length out to about 18 printed pages.
Take your time, and email me your answers!
A. CHILDHOOD
1. Date and place of birth:
2. Father’s name Residence:
Date of birth: Death:
3. Mother’s name Residence:
Date of birth: Death:
4. Parent’s date of marriage: . 4a. Divorce:
Remarriage: Father. Mother
5. Siblings (including step-siblings) their birth date, married/single, where they live
6. Describe your father’s role in your family, including employment.
7. Describe your mother’s role in your family, including employment.
8. Describe your parent’s personalities.
9. Describe your parent’s marriage.
10. If your parent’s were divorced, discuss why they divorced.
11. Discuss your parent’s prior or subsequent marriage.
12. Describe how your parents showed affection to each other.
13. Describe how your parents showed affection to you.
14. How did you parents comfort you?
15. How did your parents discipline you?
16. How did they criticize you?
17. How did they praise you?
18. How did they encourage you?
19. How did your parents solve problems?
20. What did your family do for fun?
21. What difficulties did you encounter as a child?
22. Describe your life growing up.
23. Name you siblings and describe your childhood relationship to them.
24. Were there other significant people in your life as a child? (Grandparent, aunt, cousin, etc?)
25. Describe your current relationship with each family member. How often do you see them?
B. EDUCATION
1. Name of high school:
Graduated? Year? If NO, why not?
Name of college:
Graduated? Year? Degree
2. What did you like about school?
3. What didn’t you like about school?
4. Do you have plans to further your education?
C. FRIENDSHIPS
1. Describe your past and current circle of friends.
2. Did your parents agree with your choice of friends?
3. At what age did you begin to date? Describe your early dating experiences.
D. ADULT LIFE EXPERIENCES
1. At what age did you consider yourself an adult?
2. Did your parents agree?
3. How old were you when you left home?
4. Did your parents approve?
5. How old were you when you started your first job?
6. Describe your employment history.
7. What do you see as your strengths?
8. What are your weaknesses?
9. Are there areas you would like to improve in?
10. How do you think others would describe your personality?
11. What kinds of activities do you like to do?
12. Who is your employer and what kind of work do you do?
13. How long have you worked at this job?
14. How do you handle job-related stress?
15. How does your job affect your home life?
16. Have you ever been arrested and/or convicted of a crime as an adult or juvenile? If so, please explain.
17. How frequently do you drink alcoholic beverages?
18. Do you use illegal drugs?
19. Please list all past and present medical problems.
20. Are you infertile? If yes, please describe attempts to solve fertility issues.
21. How have you dealt with infertility?
22. What is the biggest problem you have faced as an adult? Explain.
23. How patient are you? Please give examples of what makes you lose your temper.
E. CURRENT MARRIAGE
E1. When and where were you married?
1. Describe how, when, and where you met.
2. What attracted you to your spouse?
3. How long did you date?
4. Did your parents approve?
5. Describe your early adjustment problems.
6. What do you do together?
7. How do you handle disagreements?
8. Describe your last major disagreement and how it was resolved.
9. Describe your role in your family.
10. Describe your spouse’s role in your family.
11. How are your family finances handled? Who pays the bills, etc?
12. How do you feel about your spouse’s family?
13. Please describe your marriage in terms of emotional satisfaction.
14. Who did you learn about sex and sexual development from?
15. Do you plan to educate your children differently than you were educated?
16. Please describe any problems or differences of opinion you experience in your marriage.
17. How have you tried to solve these problems?
18. Describe what you like about your spouse.
19. What would you change about your spouse?
20. How do you and your spouse express affection toward each other?
21. Is this satisfactory to both?
22. How do you handle jealousy?
23. What religion are you? Are you active in this faith? How often do you go to church?
24. How important is religion in your life?
25. Describe your pets.
26. What are your future goals?
F. PREVIOUS MARRIAGE
1. Dates of marriage and divorce:
2. How many children from this marriage?
3. Who has custody?
4. Frequency of contact with children?
5. Describe the problems that led to the divorce in the above marriage(s).
6. What did you learn from that experience?
G. FAMILY
CHILDREN-- Please answer as many questions as possible, even if you have no children.
1. List names, ages, whether in or out of home, and any unusual problems or illnesses.
2. Describe each child’s personality.
3. What are your hopes for your children?
4. What are your fears for your children?
5. Describe the father’s family role.
6. Describe the mother’s family role.
7. Who will handle discipline and how?
8. Describe your child’s school experience.
9. How would you manage as a single parent?
10. Which is the most challenging stage of child development? Why?
11. How do you show your children that you love them?
12. How do your children know you approve of their behavior?
13. How do you criticize your children?
14. What is your personal philosophy on raising children?
15. What do you and your spouse agree about raising children?
16. What do you disagree on?
17. Are you now or will you in the future raise your children the same way you were raised?
18. What would you like to improve on as a parent?
19. How will adoption affect your biological children?
20. How will you help your biological children adjust to adoption?
21. What so you like to do with your children?
22. What responsibilities do you give your children?
H. OTHERS IN THE HOME
1. Name, age, and relationship:
2. What is this person's role in the family?
3. How will this person be affected by adoption?
4. How will you help this person adjust to the adoption?
I. HOME AND COMMUNITY
1. Describe your home.
2. What do you like best about your community?
3. What do you dislike about your home or community?
4. How do you divide household tasks?
5. What happens when family members “mess up” the house?
6. How long do you expect to live in your home and community?
7. What are the public schools in your area? (elem, mid, and high school)
8. Do you have special education facilities in your community?
9. Do you have mental health professionals in your community?
10. Do you have medical facilities in your community?
J. ADOPTION READINESS
1. Who first brought up the subject of adoption?
When and why?
2. What made you decide to pursue adoption?
3. What do your friends and family think about you pursuing adoption?
4. Why do you want to become adoptive parents?
K. ADOPTIVE CHILD’S BACKGROUND
1. How do you plan to explain adoption to your child and at what age will you begin?
2. If you are considering adopting a child of a different ethnicity than yours, please discuss your feelings about preserving and/or acknowledging the racial differences in the family.
3. How will you feel about your child’s inevitable questions about his/her birthparents?
4. How do you feel about your child eventually searching for his/her birthparents?
5. What would you do if your spouse decided to drop out of the adoption process?
6. Do you know other families who have adopted children? What has their experience been?
|