Transracial Adoption Paper

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

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

With adoption being viewed in such a positive light there are still some people who are strongly against transracial adopting and some of their reason are because they believe that the child will lose their identity. Is the race of the child more important than the love that the child will receive? While observing transracial adopting there are many point of view that you have to factor in, but there is only one that matters and that is the love of the child.

In a 1987 study, conducted by Simon and Alstein, an Indian adopted child stated, “It bothers me that I’m Indian. People don’t look up to Indians. The whites always fought the Indians and the Indians got beat. We aren’t looked up to. There is nothing special about being Indian” (Sindelar, 2004). This clearly indicates that the native adoptee feels inferior to his White adoptive parents; therefore, the child was obviously unable to fully integrate into the White culture without feeling inferior. In the case of Baby Girl v. Adoptive Couple, she may have been at risk to feeling the same inferiority due to the extreme exposure of the White culture and the lack of exposure and pride towards her own ethnicity; therefore, causing possibilities of distress and discomfort in her own skin.

Since the 1960’s, interracial adoption has been on the rise, although it was looked down upon until the 1990’s. Many kids sit and wait to be adopted for most of their childhood. So, instead of adoption agencies waiting to find what they call “the perfect match,” which is referring to a family who is of the same race as the child they intend to adopt, they started allowing interracial adoption as a part of hoping every child finds a family that loves them beyond the color of their skin. Proponents argue that children grow up to not care that they aren’t the same color as their parents, their kids are more open to learning about their culture, and that kids of different races, other than caucasian, are more available in foster homes and overseas. While cons argue that family acceptance is a problem, the kid might feel uncomfortable about being a different race than their parents, and that parents might not like to stand out.

As parents continue to fight the laws stating they can’t adopt children of different race, the families that have tend to look into trips. Taking the children back to their place of birth to allow them to learn about their heritage as well as the culture they were born into. Adoptions around the world quadrupled during 1982-2004. There was a total of 23,000 children adopted out to families. When kids reach the age of around 10 the parents believe a trip to their birth place would be very educational, enriching, and meaningful to the child. Most

Thesis: Transracial adoptees family situation affects many aspects of the adopted child’s life. Do these children have identity formation difficulties during adolescence and are there any significant differences between adoptees and birth children?

In addition, studies have shown that children’s self-esteem, adjustment, and the capacity to form bonds were not adversely affected by their adoption. Still, parents should be aware that children of a racial minority group develop their sense of ethnic identity differently. Parents need to make sure their children are showing proper and positive environments.

To the thousands of children in foster care, adoption means being part of a family. Adoption signifies a chance to be loved, wanted, and cared for properly. Every year thousands of children enter the foster care system. In the year 2010 alone, 245,375 children entered foster care, of that number over 61,000 were black. An astounding 30,812 black children were waiting for adoption in 2010 (AFCARS). With so many children needing homes, it would seem their adoption would be open to any and all loving families, yet this is not the necessarily the case. Transracial adoption, which traditionally alludes to black children placed with white families, is riddled with difficulties. While transracial adoption can be a successful solution, many

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

     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

The legalization of homosexual equality has been a controversial topic within recent weeks. Same sex couples are fighting for equality in every sense from the work environment, church, home and school environment. Same sex marriage however controversial could be a good outlet for homeless children. Many same sex couples are ready to adopt children and have a family of their own however many state laws prevents them from doing so. Currently there are 130,000 children in the foster care system (Ryan, Averett, & Nalavany, 2009). In 2008 alone 11 billion was spend on child welfare; half of which was spent on IV-E Foster Care (acf.hss.gov).

In the last four decades, the concept of the American family has undergone a radical transformation, reflecting society¡¯s growing openness. Among all segments of society, there is a greater acceptance of a variety of family structures ¨C from single parenting to blended families to same sex parenting of children. The introduction of openness into the process of adoption offers new opportunities for children in need of a parent or parents and prospective parents wishing to create or expand their families. Meeting the requirements to become eligible to adopt no longer means being constrained by the conventions of an earlier generation.

1851, Massachusetts passed the first adoption law, yet it’s only recently that same sex adoption has become more common (The Adoption HIstory) . Over the past few years the LGBT community has been trying to fight the discrimination against being able to adopt. They struggle twice as hard to get legal custody rights then it would for heterosexual couples.