[Asha0314]

Adoption study tackles race -- -- chicagotribune.com

[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.

[rredhead]

We've been discussing this on the Yahoo! Group African American Domestic Adoption.
The study is limited to children adopted from foster care. Different states have different training available for their potential parents. Some people have said that they were given advice on parenting transracially, while others said that they got squat.
People who adopted through private agencies often said that they had to take classes, read books, etc. I find it interesting that many private agencies urge, if not outright require, classes and/or training for parents adopting transracially. Apparently, MEPA was somehow construed to mean that no thought of race at all was supposed to be involved in foster adoption, to the extent that it was left out of training in some places.

[Marie8888]

We adopted our son privately. And our home study focused on making sure we were prepared for a black child and not making sure we were ok to parent at all. At the time it annoyed me, but now I am really glad that the agency was like that because I agree that recognizing racial differences as well as instilling a pride in his background is important.
Marie

[aclee]

Originally Posted by rredhead

We've been discussing this on the Yahoo! Group African American Domestic Adoption.
The study is limited to children adopted from foster care. Different states have different training available for their potential parents. Some people have said that they were given advice on parenting transracially, while others said that they got squat.
People who adopted through private agencies often said that they had to take classes, read books, etc. I find it interesting that many private agencies urge, if not outright require, classes and/or training for parents adopting transracially. Apparently, MEPA was somehow construed to mean that no thought of race at all was supposed to be involved in foster adoption, to the extent that it was left out of training in some places.

If the study focused only on Children adopted from Foster care, how can they be sure that the findings are as a result of being a transracial adoptee, and not from being in foster care, or for what happened to the child that placed them in foster care (abuse, neglect, etc)

I think they can find a way to make most studies say whatever they want them to say in the end....

One of the work shops I went to specifically stressed that the "color blind" method of being "anti racist" really isn't thought of as appropriate anymore. To recognize the difference and realize they are positive and unique is preferred.

[committedsoul]

I don't even have anything to say...

I agree with the study, though.

[OakShannon]

Originally Posted by aclee

If the study focused only on Children adopted from Foster care, how can they be sure that the findings are as a result of being a transracial adoptee, and not from being in foster care, or for what happened to the child that placed them in foster care (abuse, neglect, etc)

A fair point and one I hope/assume they tried to address in the study. But it is also true that a number of children adopted from foster care are placed as infants and there may be little or no history of abuse. (Most, however, are born with prenatal drug and/or alcohol exposure.) I realize that this is purely anecdotal, but I know a lot of families doing fost-adopt and the majority had children placed with them at under 1 year old. Often, it is apparent immediately that the birth parents are not able to parent (or need services to help them become able to parent) so the children are removed right from the hospital. In our case, while the process is very different for US, for Daniel his adoption will function very much like a closed adoption.

For what it's worth, with the transracial adoptees we spoke to in our training as well as our nieces adopted from Korea (currently in their 20's) their experiences pretty much mirrored the study's findings.

[BethanyB]

I also agree with the study.

[Cjmeck]

Originally Posted by aclee

If the study focused only on Children adopted from Foster care, how can they be sure that the findings are as a result of being a transracial adoptee, and not from being in foster care, or for what happened to the child that placed them in foster care (abuse, neglect, etc)

I think they can find a way to make most studies say whatever they want them to say in the end....

One of the work shops I went to specifically stressed that the "color blind" method of being "anti racist" really isn't thought of as appropriate anymore. To recognize the difference and realize they are positive and unique is preferred.

I completely agree, that was my first thought on the topic! Do they think years in foster care cannot possibly equate to whatever "damage" was done to these children? Certainly it cannot be race alone that is the issue, but the issue of the length of time in the foster system, or the break from their birth family. So while I agree that there should be additional education for transracial adoptions, I also think this report may not be a little off. I'd rather see a report on transracial adoption OUTSIDE of the foster care system. That would be a more accurate report.

[Linny]

I completely agree cjmeck!!!! We've adopted Asian (now grown and on their own) and AA babies. The grown ones, certainly DON'T fall into the categories this study would seem to imply.
We've also adopted through the foster care system. How anyone could equate infant adoptions with (even just a little older) foster care adoptions is beyond me! I spent years telling myself they were the same. Years later, I realized how WRONG I was. Adoption involving the foster care system---passing infants back and forth for months...and private infant adoptions are two separate things...completely.

Don't get me wrong. I think there needs to be a lot of education for parents wanting to adopt transracially. I find the foster care system lacks in everything....especially education in parenting children who've been IN (or STILL in, sadly) the foster care system. My gripe is with the agencies who don't educate at all; or those who have their OWN agenda out there...often feeling that transracial adoptions are bad from the beginning.

Sincerely,

Linny

[BethanyB]

Both of my children were adopted from the foster care system as newborns. I brought them home straight from the hospital myself. They are now almost three and almost four years old. My son who will be four on July third is noticing skin color and is very confused. He has told me that I can't be his mom because I am white on more than one occasion. He has told me he WANTS a brown mommy and daddy. He has asked about his brown mommy and is clearly all on his own starting to make connections and WANTS connections with those who look like him. I have to say I expected this but not at such a young age. And this from a mom who is totally aware of the problems transracial adoptees can have. A mom who tells them how beautiful they are and buys them toys of all skin colors and reads them books about people with different skin colors.

Do I think my son is going to be miserable growing up in my family and be doomed for life? No of course not, but I understand the value of being around people who look like you and for many of our kids that is not a reality. I don't shrug that off as a non issue or make my son feel silly for having those feelings by telling him it does not matter. His feelings matter and raising a child of color is not the same as raising a child who looks like you. It just needs special care and understanding in order to be able to arm our kids with proper self esteem.

Most people don't understand or don't try to understand what life would be like if they were the ONLY white person in their town or workplace or school or family. Some think it just does not matter. I think it does matter. It does not mean our kids are doomed or that we will be bad parents but I think we need to be aware and have training to figure out that it does have meaning for our kids.

And again, my black children did not languish in foster care and were not moved from home to home. They were not abused. I would not shrug this study off so easily.