Adoptive Parents e-Racing Adopted Children by Choosing, Keeping, Avoiding, and Purchasing Identity

Abstract

New adoption research argues that we can no longer view transracial and transnational adoption as a completely benign process because these children face special challenges growing up in predominantly white ethnic environments. Though the number of these adoptions has declined significantly in recent years, between 1989 and 2009, US parents adopted more than 270,000 children from other countries (Selman, 2012). In addition, there has been a smaller but significant increase in domestic transracial adoptions. As a result, adoption has been a significant component of international child migration, and a substantial number of children have experienced cultural socialization by parents whose race/ethnicity is different from theirs.