The Effects of Adoption on a Family Essay

My mother was all I had in this world. It has been two weeks and I

The adoption process strives to serve the best interests of children should be the main focus in deciding all issues of adoption policies and practices. The adoption policy should always focus on finding the best parents for children who are in need of homes. This process helps someone join another’s family and should not be a defining characteristic or lifelong process. People who are adopted as infants grow up as healthy and productive as people who are raised in their own biological families. In November of each year, the President of the United States issues a proclamation to announce National Adoption Month. This is a time that is dedicated to raising awareness for the need of adoptive families and to encourage citizens to become involved in the lives of children and youth that are in the foster care system.

Even though adoption as a process has negative results for adopting children, some people still takes this act to be a good act where children who are deprived of parents still have a

Foster Care and Adoption are the most multi-faceted areas of child welfare. Foster care consists of placing children outside of the custody of their parents or legal guardians. This out-of-home placement can be temporary or long-term. Adoption on the other hand, consists of the legal and permanent process that establishes a parent/child relationship between individuals not related biologically (Downs, Moore, & McFadden, 2009). These two areas of child welfare are constantly evolving and the decisions made on a child’s behalf can affect many areas of their biological, spiritual, social, and emotional wellbeing.

In this research they took out a longitudinal study. They studied 65 children which were placed in an institution when less than four months, which had all experienced early privation. By 4 years old, 24 children had been adopted, 15 returned to their natural homes and the rest remained in the institution. It was found that the adopted children had closer attachments to their parents and had good family relationships and this was not the case for the ‘restored’ children.

How does it feel to be adopted? Has life been altered as a result of being adopted? These questions have never fazed my view of being adopted. Awareness of being adopted began as far back as I can recall and has never been a taboo family topic. Adoption didn’t affect my life in any sort of way as a child. As I matured, the realization of the impact being adopted has had on my life has evolved. This insight created a new level of gratitude for my family and my life.

When a couple or individual decides to adopt a child, they know they are going to take on the responsibility of taking care of someone else’s child. Due to the biological parent(s) who can’t take care of that child anymore, because of either drug abuse, alcohol abuse, abuse to the child or if the parent(s) had died and there is no other care for the child. So that’s why this gives other couples who cannot have kids, the opportunity to promise themselves to be a great parent to a child in need. Though there are some bad things about adoption as well. Like adopting a child from another country of another race, because once that child is adopted into an American family, he or she will be cut off from their culture and never know about their

“It’s about my entire life, it’s not just about my childhood. I want to know that I’m going to have someone to walk me down the aisle. That I’m going to have grandparents for my children.” -Mary (a girl in foster care). Adoption and foster care is used as a solution to a child not having an adequate home, but because of its many issues, the child is put into an unfavorable position and left with an uncertain future. Foster care is when a child is placed into a home and waits for a family to adopt them. Adoption is the act of taking legal responsibility of a child and to protect them . On paper, it sounds likes like an act of kindness, but adoption and foster care has many issues tied to it. Due to the many problems of adoption and foster care, such as the environment in a foster home, the behavior of their peers, mental instability, the adoption process, a child that experienced it impact their life negatively, as demonstrated in The Murderer’s Daughter by Randy Susan Meyers.

This has caused me to want to further research the issue. What are the social and emotional effects that adoption has on children?

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

Further, applicants for adoption should be accepted on the basis of an individual assessment of their capacity to understand and meet the needs of a particular available child at the point of adoption and in the future (Rosario, 2006, p.8). The United States is facing a critical shortage of adoptive and foster parents. As a result, hundreds of thousands of children in this country are without permanent homes. These children deteriorate for months, even years, within state foster care systems that lack qualified foster parents and are frequently faced with other problems.

     Adoption is metamorphosing into a radical new process that is both sweeping the nation and changing it. But this process is not an easy one, there are many steps to go through. Through research it is made a lot easier. Adoption is a also a highly visible example of a social institution that has benefits from and been reshaped by both the Internet and the exponential growth of alternative lifestyles, from single to transracial to gay. It is accelerating our transformation into a more multicultural society; even as it helps redefine out understanding of “family.” The process includes three main steps including a type of adoption, the techniques for location a baby for adoption, arranging

They have self-satisfaction and identity development problems more than their peers. An identity problem is an effect that teenagers develop once they know they’ve been adopted. They do not have a strong sense of self and struggle with identity issues; that also leads to depression, anxiety, and other psychological health problems. Children in semi-open adoptions often wonder what their real families look like, where they live and how they act. They begin to become curious about their biological family and wonder what it would be like to meet their family members and other siblings they may have. In the other hand, during open adoptions children are given a chance to know their birth parents and form some kind of relationship with them and receive information that they might not have known in the past. Feelings of regret may come along with their identity issues. The children may feel as though they are doing something wrong behind their adopted parents back. They feel betrayal towards them for simply being curious of their biological family. In many cases the emotions are confusing and difficult to deal with. They also face difficult times when questions begin to arise about being an adopted child in the family. People outside your family will become curious if the child does not physically look like the parents. That is when at times adopted children become sad and annoyed at the same time. Adoption parents should quickly

Since 1776, the United States of America has had a growing problem with orphans and childhood adoption. Orphanages become overpopulated while foster homes shelter up to 3 children on average. The foster care system has been viewed as positive reinforcement for American homes; yet the point of fostering children is consistently overlooked. Adoption is necessary for orphans, foster children, or children in abusive homes. The act of adopting a child comes with positive benefits and fiscal responsibility, such as government assistance and wiser spending. Children obtain a healthy childhood with a familiar sense of belonging. The drawback of this is the long governmental process of petitioning for adoption. Seeking the birthparents, if they are alive, retrieving consent, being fiscally responsible, and having a safe environment for the child to grow up in are all responsibilities to look forward to when adopting a child. The adoption rate in the United States of America needs to increase dramatically, as there are social benefits, mental health improvements, and economical advantages for families who adopt.

After this paper do you think adoption should be encouraged? This is a good question because we need to know that adoption is a good thing, and a blessing to a child’s life. My three main points are what is the problem with this issue, how has this problem been created, and the solution to solve this problem. I hope after this paper that you learned that adoption is a good thing and it needs to be encouraged to family’s. Adoption can save a child’s life and give them hope for the