Journal Issue: Adoption Volume 3 Number 1 Spring 1993
The Adjustment of Different Racial Groups
Most studies of transracial adoption have focused on children from a single racial or ethnic group or have combined minority children from a variety of backgrounds into a single category. A study by Feigelman and Silverman sought to compare black and Asian transracial adoptions.3 These investigators initiated their research on transracial placement in 1975 with a sample of 737 families who had adopted, black, Korean, Vietnamese, and Latin American children, as well as white children. Data were collected by mail questionnaires in 1975 and again in 1981.
The children were entering or were already in adolescence, and the overall research results were consistent with those discussed above in that approximately 75% of the children in both groups were adjusting very well, while about 25% were reported to be having frequent adjustment problems. Feigelman and Silverman attempted to identify the factors causing these problems and developed an index of maladjustment using parental responses to questions about overall adjustment, emotional problems, and developmental problems. Cross-tabulation indicated that older children, children adopted after 2 years of age, African-American children, and adoptees who experienced hostility from family and friends were more likely to have moderate to high scores (worse) on the maladjustment index. However, statistical analysis of each of these variables independently, while controlling for the others, demonstrated that, among the white, black, and Korean adoptees, age at the time of adoption had the most significant impact on maladjustment. In general, older age at placement was associated with a greater degree of maladjustment. Although racial hostility also had a negative impact on adjustment, delay in placement had a far greater effect.
The authors state that the deleterious consequences of delayed placement are far more serious than those of transracial placement itself. They conclude that "the findings imply that when a choice must be made between transracial placement and continued foster and institutional care, transracial placement is clearly the option more conducive to the welfare of the child."42
Most of the adoptees were subject to some ethnic hostility which, however, was not a principle source of difficulties for the great majority of them. The degree of bigotry experienced by the black children was greater than that experienced by the Korean children (and least for the Latin-American children).
If black transracial adoptees faced more hostility than other transracial adoptees, they were also more closely tied to their racial identities than the other groups. This might, in part, have resulted from the hostility itself, but it probably also reflected the greater commitment that the white parents of black transracial adoptees had toward their children's African-American background, a commitment which was transmitted to the children. Feigelman and Silverman reported that 70% of the black transracial adoptees sometimes or often expressed pride in their African-American heritage, while only 57% of the Korean transracial adoptees expressed similar feelings.
Families who adopted black children were generally open to their children's interest in their birthparents. This was true of all families who adopted transracially, but the support given to black transracial adoptees was most pronounced. Seventy-five percent of the white fathers of black adopted children opposed the sealing of adoption records, while 51% of the fathers of Korean adoptees had similar feelings. Only 28% of the fathers of white inracial adoptees opposed the practice of sealed records. Again, family attitudes were reflected in the behavior of their adoptees, with 63% of the African Americans but only 39% of the Koreans expressing interest in knowing more about their birthparents. Thirty-nine percent of the black adoptees but only 21% of white inrace adoptees were considered likely to search for their birthparents. The data in the authors' study were very similar to those obtained by Simon and Altstein, who reported that 38% of the black transracial adoptees in their study tried or definitely intended to try to locate their birthparents.43