The Effects Of Interracial And Intercultural Adoption

Parents wishing to adopt have challenged the adoption laws regarding American-Indian children. For many decades, people wanting to adopt African-American children from disturbing situations have been put through several issues. A law was passed called the “Indian child welfare act” to end what was then a common practice. The state claims they thought that American-Indian children were better off in homes with non-Indian parents. A handful of recent lawsuits say the federal law and similar legislation at state levels make it harder to find stable homes for children. they’ve had many cases fall apart, because parents adopting don’t want the children. Most adopting parents believe it's unfair to them if they can’t adopt American-Indian children.

Transracial adoption the identity debate, is an immense concern because it confuses the child that they don’t belong to neither side black nor white. Because they have white parents, but the children’s race is black so they are in a confused stage that could affect them physiologically. The black child will end up wishing they were also white like their parents and will make them confused and not have a high self-esteem. Transracial adoption tends to have conflicting results toward the

Ethnic identity is the major reason why many African Americans do not approve of interracial adoption. Adopting a child outside of your race is interracial adoption(Godwin 258). The National Association of Black Social Workers (NABSW) are strongly against interracial adoption. They think that only black people can give the children a positive racial identity. Also that only black parents can help the children develop skills for coping in a racist society. This statement is proven to be wrong in the Grow/Shapiro study in 1974(Bender/Leone 198). The study consisted of 125 white families who all adopted black children. Seventy-seven percent of the adoptions went smoothly without any problems at all. They found that the tests of the transracially adopted children verses those of white adopted children matched very closely (Bender/Leone 200). The tests compared the problems that the white and black children face like racism. The numbers show that the child’s age, not transracial adoption, has the most impact on adjustment and racial identity(Bender/Leone 202). The longer the child is in an orphanage or foster home, the more problems the child will have with an adoptive family. Because the child has no parent, it often becomes confused. The child does not know who to call mom or dad. The children wait two to five years in a foster home or orphanage before being adopted. There are not enough adoptive black

In Hugh Muir and Joanna Moorhead’s article “The Truth About Inter-Racial Adoption”, they argue that a plethora of ethnic children are fixed in the injustice adoption system due to the “shortage of minority families seeking to adopt” (Muir and Moorhead 1). The article considers issues surrounding inter-racial adoption in Great Britain where one in five children to be adopted is from ethic minority with a wait that is three times longer than their white counterparts. In fact, “20% of the ethnic minority” adoptees are never placed in adoptive homes due to the problematic adoptive system in Great Britain (Muir and Moorhead 2). This issue has attracted interest between both Muir and Moorhead who seek to understand why there is such a high amount

As parents of adopted children of different races should be (Russel). “You can not just love a child, but have to understand that he belongs to a certain culture,” says Reverend Hofmann (Russel). Knowing diversity is the most important thing in interracial adoptions. It helps the children to be who they are and learn how society reacts to people of different races (Dunham 160) Acoording to a 2007 National Survey of Adoptive Parents the U.S. Department of Health and Human services found that 40 percent of children that Americans adopt from all around

In multiple studies such as Grow and Shapiro, 77% of the interracial adoptions had the same out comes as same race adoptions. In a study by McRoy and Zurcher in 1983 “strong bonds between the parents and adoptees developed in both groups [same race and interracial adoptions]…authors found no differences in self-concept and self-esteem [between the two groups]” (Silverman, 1993, p. 109). Silverman cites multiple other studies that show a similar trend that adopted children who grow up in interracial families do not suffer from psychological, emotional, or other adjustment problems more so than other types of adopted children. The results of the studies clearly refute any claim from the opposition that Black children raised in White homes should be a last resort because they will come out misadjusted and poorly

Now there are some things to consider when it comes to adoption. One of these being that transracial adoptees do not always want to be adopted by people from a different race. Meaning that skin tone and ethnicity plays a factor in the adoption process. Many people question if placing an adoptee in the home of a different race family fits the need of the child, and in the long run that’s the main goal of adoption, fitting the needs of the child. This situation has become very common, and are not always bad. However, “Trans-racial adoption can have very good outcomes, but one issue keeps cropping up – and that’s a sense of loneliness and isolation, a sense of not belonging. Adoption is a new identity and when you get the added challenges of people

One of the most common scenarios we think of when hearing the phrase, “transracial adoption”, is a white family bringing an African American baby into their home. However, that is not always the case. Transracial adoption means the joining together of racially diverse parents and children together into an adopted family. Many families have had the life changing opportunity of adopting a child into their home, whether the child is African American, Chinese, or Vietnamese, that has shaped the family into something even stronger. People should consider interracial adoption because children are able to benefit from a different ethnic background as well as provide a cultural abundant experience for the whole family.

Perhaps the main concern for transracial adoptees concerning their racial situation involves their sense of identity, divided between racial and personal (Deberry 2377). One study worth mention concerning racial identity used the Clark and Clark Doll Test, which features two dolls with dark and light skin, and found only a seven percent difference between the black identification of transracial black adoptees to inracial black adoptees (Morrison 182). Regarding personal identities, outcome studies suggest that TRAs are not necessarily more prone than same-race adoptees or nonadoptees to emotional or behavioral problems, low self-esteem, or maladjustments (Lee 4). During a twenty year follow-up on Chinese children adopted transracially to Britain, the researchers concluded that adoptees and nonadoptees developed self-esteem and social adjustment on the same level (Lee 4). A study in 1977 that interviewed transracially adopting parents throughout the United States found their black children emotionally healthy (Morrison 181). A second concern for the psychological and social effects of TRA considers whether a transracially adopted child adjusts well into a racially different environment. According to a 1983 study, racial differences do not inhibit transracial adoptees from developing typical relationships any less than inracial adoptees (Morrison 182). Furthermore, racial differences may strengthen the parent-child relationship, as it “reinforces that the family’s foundation is based on bonds of relationship, not…biology” (Morrison 188). Studies have indicated the healthy racial identities, the healthy personal identities, and the relationship enabling of racial differences as proof of psychological and social benefits of transracial

The participants were 15 white, mothers, who had adopted either internationally or domestically. International adoptions were from China, Korea, and South America. Domestically adopted children

Have you ever felt unwanted? Well, many children who wait in foster care often times feel this way. Transracial adoption can help them find a loving home. I believe that race should not be a factor in adoption.

Transracial adoption is has been a source a controversy for decades. Opponents of transracial adoption worry that the adopted children will struggle with racial identity and that it promotes “cultural genocide”, while those on the opposite spectrum of transracial adoption seem to take a position of being “color-blind” coupled with the idea that “all you need is love.” Transracial adoption is

Child Adoption has been around for centuries. According to The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, the most recent number of national adoptions was last collected in 1992 and has not been collected since. The reason for this is that it is not legally required. In 1992, the number of adoptions that occurred in the U.S. was around 127,000. In total, there are 1.5 million children that are adopted in the U.S., which accounts for over 2% of all U.S. children (Donaldson, 2008). My sister’s adoption is considered to be transracial. That is when children are placed into a household that is of a different race. Only 8% of the total amounts of adoptions are transracial, which is pretty shocking to me. The website also offered the percentages of the most common ages that children are usually adopted. The most common age that children are adopted is under 1 year old, which is about 46%. Next are ages 1-4 at 43%, 5-9 years old at 8%, and over 9 years old which is only 3% (Donaldson, 2008). After reading these statistics, I decided to further research how the children of these varying ages may adapt as they are adopted at different ages.

The necessity of adoption in the world is astounding. Currently, there is an estimated 143 million orphans worldwide (Wingert, vol.151). As of 2007, there were 513,000 children living in foster care within the United States alone (Rousseau 21:14). International adoption in the United States was jumpstarted post World War II as a way of helping those children who were left homeless, after war had taken their parents. Although there are thousands of healthy children awaiting adoption in the United States, several American couples still turn to foreign adoption when seeking potential children. Americans often fail to realize the need for intervention within their own country and their duty to take care of domestic affairs before venturing to

As the transition of adoption is finished, a problem of identity arises within the child. It may be months, or even years, depending on the age of the child. Since the child has come from a different background or heritage, the cultural normal is considered different for the child. This is especially the case when