Adoption, Race, and Identity: From Infancy to Young Adulthood

Adoption Race, & Identity is a long-range study of the impact of interracial adoption on those adopted & their families. Initiated in 1972, it was continued in 1979, 1984, & 1991. Cumulatively, these four phases trace the subjects from early childhood into young adulthood. This is the only extended study of this controversial subject. Simon & Altstein provide a broad perspective of the impact of transracial adoption & include profiles of the families involved in the study. They explore & compare the experiences of both the parents & the children. They identify families whose adoption experiences were problematic & those experiences were positive. Finally, the study looks at the insights the experience of transracial adoption brought to the adoptive parents & what advice they would pass on to future parents adopting children from different racial backgrounds. They include the reflections of those adopted included in the 1972 first phase, who are now adults themselves. This second edition includes a new concluding chapter that updates the fourth & last phase of the study. The authors were able to locate 88 of the 96 families who participated in the 1984 study. Bringing together all four phases of this twenty-year study into one volume gives the reader a richer & deeper understanding of what the experience of transracial adoption has meant for the parents, the adoptees, & children born into the families studied. This landmark work, will be of compelling interest to social workers, policy makers, & professionals & families involved on all sides of interracial adoption.

Rita J. Simon is a professor in the School of Public Affairs at the Washington College of Law at American University.