[ljsdo2007]

I find it interesting that there is now pretty solid research to back up my concerns about not addressing race or ethnicity when raising an adopted child who is a different ethnicity than their adoptive parents, i.e. being a "colorblind" family, and also my hesitation about raising a black child in a heavily white community.

From the above mentioned studyEvan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute :

An underlying assumption of past research was that transracial adoption was not a challenge for adoptees if there were no significant differences on overall adjustment measures between groups of transracial and in-race adoptees. However, recent studies - using more rigorous methods to directly measure the racial and ethnic experiences of adoptees and how these experiences may contribute to psychological adjustment - have found parents' attitudes and behaviors related to racial socialization affect their transracially adopted children's outcomes on a range of variables (Lee, 2003).

Recent research has focused on parents' approaches to cultural and racial socialization and examined how different approaches affect aspects of their children's ethno-racial identity and psychological adjustment, finding that when parents facilitate their children's understanding of and comfort with their own ethnicities, the children show more positive adjustment in terms of higher levels of self-esteem, lower feelings of marginality, greater ethnic pride, less distress, and better psychological adjustment (DeBerry, et al.,1996; Yoon, 2001; Lee & Quintana, 2005; Mohanty, Keokse, & Sales, 2006; Johnston, Swim, Saltsman, Deater-Deckard, & Petrill, 2007).

Some of the challenges confronting transracially adopted children are summarized below:

Transracially adopted children face challenges in coping with being "different." Many transracially adopted children of color, particularly those with dark skin, express the wish to be White (Juffer, 2006). Several studies have found that transracially adopted children struggle more with acceptance and comfort with their physical appearance than do children placed in-race (Andujo, 1988; Kim, 1995). Appearance discomfort has been linked to higher levels of adjustment difficulties in transracially adopted children and young adults, and one study found that those raised in heavily White communities were twice as likely as adoptees living in racially mixed communities to feel discomfort with their racial appearance (Juffer, 2006; Feigelman, 2000).

Transracially adopted children may struggle to develop a positive racial/ethnic identity. Several studies have found that these children scored lower on racial identity measures than their in-race adoptive counterparts (McRoy, Zurcher, Lauderdale, & Anderson, 1982; Andujo, 1988; Baden, 2002). The importance of these issues is further highlighted by research indicating that transracial adoptees' confusion over ethnic identity is associated with behavior problems and psychological distress (Cederblad, Hook, Irhammar, & Mercke, 1999) and that their ethnic pride is related to higher well-being and less distress (Yoon, 2001).

A key life skill for transracially adopted children is the ability to cope with discrimination. Learning to deal with prejudice is particularly important when adoptees belong to racial groups that experience significant discrimination. Brooks and Barth (1999), in a study of different racial/ethnic groups of transracial adoptees, found that African Americans - particularly males - experienced the highest level of discrimination. Studies of transracially adopted adolescents and young adults have found that perceived discrimination is significantly associated with behavior problems and psychological distress (Cederblad, et al., 1999; Feigelman, 2000).

The body of research supports the conclusion that transracial adoption brings additional challenges to adopted children and their families - challenges that need to be addressed in matching children with families and in preparing families to meet their children's needs.