Transracial Adoption Research Paper

The Leavers by Lisa Ko is an important narrative that helped to deepen my understanding of transracial adoption by highlighting the complex challenges faced by both the adoptive parents and the adoptees. Throughout the book, Daniel’s experiences as a transracial adoptee showcase issues such as culture and identity loss, as well as microaggressions and racism. In Ridgeborough, Daniel encounters a profound loss of his culture as a Chinese American, due to the separation from his birth mother, Polly, and because he is now living with White Americans. In Ridgeborough Peter and Kay make it clear that Daniel should be speaking in English, “English, Peter would warn”(49).

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

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.

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.

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?

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)

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.

This controversy gained national attention in 1972 when the National Association of Black Social Workers (NABSW) boldly asserted that the practice of placing African American children in White adoptive homes was not in the best interest of the children (Fenster, 2004). The NABSW’s stance was based on their core beliefs that “only black families could provide the skills needed to survive in a racist society and Black children in White homes would be isolated from African American cultural values, ultimately affecting their identity development” (Lee, Crolley-Simic, & Vonk, 2013, p. 122). This stance was held throughout the next three decades and race matching was commonly used in the adoption process, in attempts to place African American children in Black adoptive homes rather than in White adoptive homes, as transracial adoption was seen as a last resort. Although race matching was considered to be in the best interest of the child because children were placed with adoptive parents of the same race, race matching unintentionally contributed to foster care drift and an increase in the amount of children in foster care. Foster care drift refers to the magnitude of children lingering in the foster care system for long periods of time without achieving permanency through reunification or adoption. In order to address race matching and foster care drift, Congress passed the Multiethnic Placement Act (MEPA) of 1994 and the Interethnic Adoption Provisions (IEP) of 1996 (Bradley & Hawkins-Leon, 2002). This legislation unintentionally fueled the transracial adoption debate. MEPA declared that race matching was not a priority in the placement of African American children in adoptive homes, and the IEP took it one step further by asserting that “race was not to be considered at all

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.

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,

The social movements of the 60’s and 70’s impacted the traditional views of adoption in the United States. The trend of challenging the dominant society’s oppressive social structures that best represent the interests of the dominant group, influenced society to question adoption laws during the 1970’s (Hicks, 1998).

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).

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

Throughout the past few years, the subject of same-sex adoption has been caught in the crosshairs, due to the fact that it is a particularly controversial topic. Many people have the idea that a child cannot be raised properly without the traditional upbringing of both a man and a woman as parents. While the traditional form of parenthood is great, a same-sex couple can also sufficiently raise a child to become a moral, strong individual.