Transracial adoption began to be practiced more widely after World War II. Children from war-torn countries without families were adopted by families in the United States. Korean children, Vietnamese children, and European children were placed with Caucasian parents. As more and more racial ethnic minority children within the United States were without families, domestic adoption agencies began to place African American, Native American, and Hispanic children with Caucasian families who wanted children. Intercountry adoptions were also continued so children from Korea, Columbia, the Dominican Republic, Hong Kong, and other foreign countries were placed with families in American.
However, in 1972, the National Association of Black Social Workers (NABSW) became concerned about the large numbers of Black/African American children who were being placed with Caucasian families. They issued a statement condemning the practice of transracial adoption of Black/African American children to Caucasian parents. They cited psychological maladjustment, poor racial identity, the inability to cope with racism and discrimination, and "cultural genocide" as the likely outcomes of transracial adoptive placements.
Since that statement was issued, researchers and professionals in the fields of social work and child development have conducted studies attempting to determine the validity of the statements made by the NABSW.
In reviewing the opposition to transracial adoption that has been expressed, criticisms and concerns have been targeted at both intracountry and intercountry adoptions and have been based primarily on questions regarding identity development and psychological adjustment (e.g., Silverman & Feigelman, 1981; Tizard, 1991). However, criticisms of transracial adoption have not been limited to the NABSW. Third world countries from whom Americans have adopted many children and racial ethnic groups such as Native Americans (Ryan, 1983; Tizard, 1991) have also voiced concerns about the effects of transracial and intercountry adoption. Transracial adoption has been referred to as "cultural genocide," as "the ultimate expression of American Imperialism," and as leading to "poor" identity development and psychological maladjustment (Tizard, 1991). These comments have lead researchers to investigate the validity of these claims.
Legislation has finally been introduced into the controversy in the form of the Metzenbaum Multiethnic Placement Act (MEPA) of 1994 (MEPA). MEPA along with the 1996 provisions for Removal of Barriers to Interethnic Adoption (IEP) were designed to reduce the practice of race-matching in adoptive placements for children (Hollinger & The ABA Center on Children and the Law National Resource Center on Legal and Court Issues, 1998). Together, these two pieces of legislation are commonly referred to as MEPA-IEP. MEPA-IEP were designed to decrease the amount of time children wait for adoptive placement, to improve and assist in the recruitment and retention of prospective foster and adoptive parents who are able to meet the distinctive needs of the children to be placed, and to eliminate discrimination in the practice of adoptive and foster care placements on the basis of race, color, or national origin (Hollinger & The ABA Center on Children and the Law National Resource Center on Legal and Court Issues, 1998). Given this legislation as well as the numbers of transracial According to the National Adoption Information Clearinghouse (NAIC; 2000), no formal public or private means for collecting national data on adoption. As a result, the number of domestic transracial adoptions cannot be obtained with certainty. However given this limitation, the 1987 National Health Interview Survey (NAIC, 2000) found that approximately 8% of all adoptions were transracial, but estimates in 1998 suggested that 15% of the 36,000 adoptions of foster children were transracial or transcultural (US DHHS, 2000 as cited in NAIC, 2000). Estimates of intercountry adoptions are obtained only via tracking orphan visas issued by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Demographic statistics on these adoptions show that 16,396 children were adopted internationally in 1999 (NAIC, 2000). This figure is up by 622 from the 15,774 adopted in 1998 and up 2776 from the 13,620 adopted in 1997. Thus, MEPA-IEP are a step in the right direction, but more work still needs to be done.
Social workers and child developmental researchers began to study the effects of transracial adoption in the 60s and 70s. Unfortunately, counseling psychologists have yet to participate in these studies. Perhaps it has been assumed that the needs of transracial adoptees are similar to the needs of traditionally (intraracially) adopted children. To endorse this assumption, however, a crucial factor in development and adjustment is ignored: the racial and cultural identity development of transracial adoptees. In the case of transracial adoptees, the racial group membership of the adoptees differs from their adoptive parents' racial group membership and in many instances, the culture of the adoptee also differs (e.g., as is the case in intercountry adoptions). These differences have been expected to have a differential and potentially negative effect on transracial adoptees--an effect that children adopted intraracially do not experience. Due to the potentially differential experiences of transracially adopted children, counseling psychologists must be prepared to serve the needs of these individuals throughout their childhood and adulthood and the implications for the practice of counseling with these individuals must be determined.
To resolve these issues, further research should be conducted regarding the identity of transracial adoptees and those factors that contribute to their identity. The literature in this area has provided some information that has been helpful in resolving this dilemma. However, when studying transracial adoptees and their families, the racial differences of parents and children have been the primary focus. In doing so, these studies have overlooked the impact of the family and the characteristics of the parents that are independent of their racial group membership, thereby under-representing the role of the adoptive parents in the psychological adjustment and the racial identity of the children. As a result of this oversight, many of the studies of transracial adoptees have been based on the assumption that the racial differences of the parents and children are the causes of psychological maladjustment and "poor" identity development. However, this assumption may be faulty. Consider the following scenario:
Perhaps transracial adoptees can be impacted by racial differences and cultural differences to such an extent that they more closely identify with individuals of racial groups other than their own and that they engage in cultural practices from cultures other than the culture of their racial group.
Does this necessarily result in psychological maladjustment? The answer to this question has not yet been demonstrated, but assumptions that it would result in maladjustment serve as the primary argument against transracial adoption. Yet another question has been not been addressed regarding this scenario. Do those transracial adoptees who do develop "positive" racial/ethnic identities have better psychological adjustment than those who do not? These questions must be answered in order to have more definitive evidence regarding the implications of transracial adoption on the adoptees. To answer these questions, our understanding of the formation of identity in transracial adoptees must be increased. Currently, no such information is available.
In this research, the available literature on current knowledge of transracial adoptees' identity, on the formation of identity in children and adolescents, and on identity formation in racial ethnic minorities was critiqued and the findings from that critique were extended to transracial adoptees. As was demonstrated in the literature review, the vast majority of work on identity in transracial adoptees has been limited to the construct of racial identity which is based on the concept of personal identity as described by Erikson (as cited in Helms, 1993). However, only one study has addressed identity formation in transracial adoptees (Brenner, 1993), and this served as the basis for this paper. Drawing upon this work, similar conceptions as well as alternative conceptions regarding the formation of identity in transracial adoptees will be examined.
The current researcher and Dr. Robbie J. Steward, an Associate Professor at Michigan State University, developed the Cultural-Racial Identity Model to describe the unique experiences of transracial adoptees. This model will be published in the Journal of Social Distress and the Homeless in their 2000 special edition.