Introduction
“Maybe these babies grew in the wrong stomachs, but now they have found the right parents” (Evans, 2008, pg. 159). Transracial adoption is the adoption of a child of one race by a parent or parents of a different race (Baden et al., 2012). This occurs both domestically (inter-country) and internationally (Ung et al., 2012).
The history of international adoption stems from the Korean War (1950-1953) (Chang et al., 2016). The birth of the adoption agency, Holt International in 1956, allowed American families to start adopting orphans from Korea (IBID).
In society, transracial adoption is often considered controversial, especially when the parents are white, and the child is of a racial minority. According to Harf et al. (2015), finding one’s ethnic identity is key to the well-being and psychological adjustment of the child. Moreover, learning foreign customs places strain on a child’s development. This is supported by Patel (2007), who suggests that having a biracial identity can lead to both inner conflict and conflict within society, especially when adoptees feel racially categorized by others. Thus, does transracial adoption impact the child’s ethnic identity?
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Some parents aim to include partially, if not all of the child’s birth culture into their household (Harf et al., 2015). While others, are not so keen and tend to favour bringing up the child completely into the culture of the adopted family (IBID). These different parenting practices, will ultimately influence the child’s future identity.
Similarly, the cultural experiences of transracial adoptees are uniquely influenced by their adoption and their place within their own racial/ethnic groups and cultures (Baden et al., 2012). The exposure to a child’s birth culture will help the child decide if their birth and/or adopted culture accurately reflects their identity