Self-administered online surveys. A case study: “adoptive families and their lifestyles”

Abstract

In 2004 Spain becomes the second country in the world for international adoption, favouring a great visibility and social relevance of the adoptive family. The article presents the findings obtained through the administration online to Spanish adoptive parents of the web survey “Adoptive families and their lifestyles”. In particular, we expose the results obtained about attitudes, opinions and the perception of the social rule regarding the subject of adoption. This analysis allows us to explore the explanatory factors which determine that a subset of the population chooses adoption at the same time that it approaches us to the sociological understanding both of the increase of the adoptions in Spain and  the adoptive families. Furthermore, the article presents the technical aspects related to the design and application of the online survey in order to demonstrate that, despite the typical limitations of this application, this sheds light on the process of international adoption, scarcely explored in the Spanish sociological research using surveys.