Closed Adoption Research Paper

Having a parent who was adopted, and not being able to open their file leaves their children feeling empty. I grew up not knowing the other half of me and not knowing what cultures I could be a part of. Children who have a parent or parents that went through closed adoption process feel confused with their roots, lack medical history of potential diseases, and feel a loss of ethnic identity. My father went through a closed adoption when he was a baby. His adopted parents adopted him, for the thought of receiving money only to receive nothing. For the rest of his life, my father lived in content of not knowing his biological parents. There is a difference between a closed adoption and an open adoption, in a closed there is “no sharing of information”, whereas open allows the adopted “to have a one-on-one relationship to the birth parents” (Moe 38,

Despite my dad’s content for not needing to know, it leaves me wanting to pick up the puzzle pieces and put them together. A study showed that for individuals that have less knowledge of their identity are “salient predictors for depressive symptoms in adolescents” (Castle 307). Throughout high school I had no problem hanging out with people, I was very likeable and got along with most. The way I acted seemed to shift when I was hanging with each of the different groups I hung out with. My body would naturally withdraw from the crowd and seek solitude, not because of wanting to be alone, but because I felt lonely for some reason and not needed anymore. Everyone had a friend, and a friend group, or someone to talk to while I knew everyone, I still felt lonely. Today, I do not know if this was or is linked to not knowing my ethnic identity, but I did not feel complete in any of the groups I hung out with. There was something missing that I felt was absolutely