Transracial Adoption Research Paper

Others state that “race should be no barrier to finding a child a loving family and adoptive family”. One in five children waiting to be adopted are from an ethnic minority. Last year around 2,300 children were approved for adoption. Of those children 500 of them were either black or asian. Some adopted children state that growing up in a family you weren’t born into was more difficult than they thought. You never knew your ethnic background. It also always raises questions for a child about where they fit in or who they are. It becomes very pointed out if you are visually different from your

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

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.

Currently there is a disproportionate number of minority children in foster care system and as a result, individuals and families of other races or cultures are becoming caregivers and guardians for children of different ethnicities. This is what is known as transcultural/transracial placement and has been a highly controversial happening since the 1970’s and 80’s. The concern amongst social workers and child welfare agencies in transracial placements is the loss of culture or racial identity that may result for the child. Because of the disproportion between the ethnicity of a child and the same or similar ethnicity of a potential foster family, the notion of transracial placement has gone through many changes. As a result of several acts signed into law, considering the race of a child and/or the foster family is no longer part of placement guidelines. (U.S. Commissions On Civil Rights, 2010). While this is a positive change to ensure children are in institutional care for no longer than necessary, it could also leave the door open for the chance of racial disparity, a loss of a child’s sense of biological self, poor cultural identity, and could hinder a child’s ability to cope with being different. Research suggests “when children are removed from their cultures or when their cultures are not acknowledged and appreciated emotional trauma and behavior problems are exacerbated” (Coakley & Buehler, 2009)

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.

Transracial adoption is known as the act of placing a child of one race or culture with adoptive parents of a different race or culture. This practice is also known as interracial adoption. Typically, this involves White parents adopting children of color. This practice has taken place domestically in the United States since the 1950s, due to a decrease in the amount of White children available for adoption. Around the same time international adoptions also became more common, due to the magnitude of children left as orphans after World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Recent statistics demonstrate the rise in domestic and international transracial adoption, with domestic transracial adoption increasing from around 1,000 in

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

To start off with, children who are left unadopted due to race linger unnecessarily in the foster care system. Out of the 279 prospective parents waiting to be matched with children, 190 were white. Out of the 426 children unadopted, 398 were of another race. (“Child Welfare”). This alone proves there is a disparity between the majority race of potential adoptive parents and the majority race of potential adoptees. Even out of the total children in the Foster Care system, 55% of the children were of races other than white (2015) (“Child Welfare”). Because race is prioritized, children are left in the foster care system, sometimes until the age of 18 (“Committee”). This can lead to detrimental issues later on in life because of the lack of

In this study, researchers conducted a series of interviews to explore the impact of transracial adoption (Barn, R., 2013). Two main aspects of ethnicity were cultural competence and racial competence. Cultural competence is the basic understanding of cultural values, along with identity found in one specific group. Racial competence is the development of ways to react to prejudices or any other form of discrimination. They specifically examined whether transracial children lose a sense of cultural and racial competence when adopted by white parents.

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.

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?

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.

Children who are pulled out of their normal environment and inserted into different surroundings face an identity crisis due to the importance of identity in determining who one truly is. In a study, Trolly, Wallin, and Hansen discovered that fewer than fifty percent of the parents of foreign children felt that their children were only somewhat aware of their birth culture (Hollingsworth 48:209). These children lack a sense of who they really are and later in life will become confused on why they differ from their new families. Though it is often a painful topic that parents choose not to bring up, it is important that children understand their background because it results in a better quality of life. However, the prevalence of “cultural socializations” was low amongst Caucasian families who adopted Asian children (Deater-Deckard, Johnston, Petrill, Saltsman, and Swim 56:390). It is made clear that Westerners lack the cultural knowledge necessary to properly educate their internationally adopted children about the culture the children come from. This can result in a variety of psychological implications due to the significant effect of identity on the health of people of color (Deater-Deckard, Johnston, Petrill, Saltsman, and Swim 56:390). These implications tend to be internalized rather than externalized. In the same study, Chinese adoptees displayed the possibility of behavior such as hyperactivity, aggression,

Prior to World War II transracial adoption was not widely accepted; “agencies heavily promoted the idea of “race-matching” early in the history of adoption (“What You Need to Know About the History of Adoption”).” To clarify, early history of adoption means the 18th and 19th century. During and post World War II transracial adoption became widely accepted and popularized. For instance, the first recorded transracial adoption occurred in 1947, when two white parents adopted a black baby boy (Herman). However, transracial adoption did not occur on a wide