Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

“Just Beyond my Front Door”: Public Discourse Experiences of Children Adopted from China

  • Original paper
  • Published:
American Journal of Community Psychology

Abstract

The phenotypic differences between children and their adoptive parents in transracial adoptions make the child’s adoptive status readily apparent in public. Consequently, adoptees field more frequent questions and comments about the adoption. The present study examines the nature of public conversations about ethnicity and adoption of 41 elementary school age girls adopted from China and the ecological factors related to less frequent occurrences of such conversations and to the positive nature of these experiences. Results indicate that family structure (single parent vs. two parents) and parental bicultural competence predict membership in the favorable condition (reporting fewer public interaction experiences and reporting more positive experiences, respectively). Child’s age and racial diversity of the town of residence do not predict these outcomes. Implications for families, adoption professionals, teachers and researchers are discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. In this paper, we refer to bicultural competence as those skills, attitudes and behaviors that parents demonstrate that reflect an understanding and comfort with another culture. The authors cited here refer to “cultural competence” for the same capacities.

References

  • Aboud, F. E. (2003). The formation of in-group favoritism and out-group prejudice in young children: Are they distinct attitudes? Developmental Psychology, 39(1), 48–60.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Adams, G., Tessler, R., & Gamache, G. (2005). The development of ethnic identity among Chinese adoptees. Adoption Quarterly, 8(3), 25–46.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alvarez, A. N., Juang, L., & Liang, C. T. (2007). Asian Americans and racism: When bad things happen to “model minorities”. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 13(1), 72–81.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blau, P. M. (1977). Inequality and heterogeneity: A primitive theory of social structure. New York, NY: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Borgers, N., Hox, J., & Sikkel, D. (2003). Response quality in survey research with children and adolescents: The effect of labeled response options and vague quantifiers. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 15, 83–94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brody, G. H., Murry, V. M., Kim, S., & Brown, A. C. (2002). Longitudinal pathways to competence and psychological adjustment among African American children living in rural single-parent households. Child Development, 73(5), 1505–1516.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brodzinsky, D. M. (1993). A stress and coping model of adoption adjustment. In D. M. Brodzinsky & M. D. Schechter (Eds.), The psychology of adoption (pp. 3–24). New York, NY: Oxford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brodzinsky, D. M., & Pinderhughes, E. (2002). Parenting and child development in adoptive families. In M. Bornstein (Ed.), Handbook of parenting: Children and parenting (2nd ed., Vol. 1, pp. 279–313). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bronfenbrenner, U., & Morris, P. A. (1998). The ecology of developmental processes. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & R. M. Lerner (Vol. Ed.) Handbook of child psychology (5th edn, Vol. 1, pp. 993–1028). New York, NY: Wiley.

  • Burrow, A. L., & Finley, G. E. (2004). Transracial, same-race adoptions, and the need for multiple measures of adolescent adjustment. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 74(4), 577–583.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cederblad, M., Hook, B., Irhammar, M., & Mercke, A. (1999). Mental health in international adoptees as teenagers and young adults: An epidemiological study. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 40, 1239–1248.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute. (2008). Finding families for African American children: The role of race and law in adoption from foster care. New York, NY: Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute. (2009). Beyond culture camp: Promoting identity formation in adoption. New York, NY: Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feigelman, W. (2000). Adjustments of transracially and inracially adopted young adults. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 17, 165–183.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feigelman, W. (2007). A long-term follow-up of transracially adopted children in their young adult years. In K. J. S. Bergquist, M. E. Vonk, D. S. Kim, & M. D. Feit (Eds.), International Korean adoption: A fifty-year history of policy and practice (pp. 43–56). Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freundlich, M. (2000). Adoption and ethics: The role of race, culture, and national origin in adoption (Vol. 1). Washington, DC: Child Welfare League of America Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grotevant, H. D., Dunbar, N., Kohler, J. K., & Esau, A. L. (2007). Adoptive identity: How contexts within and beyond the family shape developmental pathways. In R. A. Javier, A. L. Baden, R. A. Biafora, & A. Comacho-Gingerich (Eds.), Handbook of adoption (pp. 77–90). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, D., Rodriguez, J., Smith, E., Johnson, D., Stevenson, H., & Spicer, P. (2006). Parents’ ethnic- racial socialization practices: A review of research and directions for future study. Developmental Psychology, 42(5), 747–770.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Huh, N. S. (2007). Korean adopted children’s ethnic identity formation. In K. J. S. Bergquist, M. E. Vonk, D. S. Kim, & M. D. Feit (Eds.), International Korean adoption: A fifty-year history of policy and practice (pp. 79–94). Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, R., & Onwuegbuzie, A. (2004). Mixed methods research: a research paradigm whose time has come. Educational Researcher, 33(7), 14–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Juffer, F., & Van Ijzendoorn, M. H. (2007). Adoptees do not lack self-esteem: A meta- analysis of studies on self- esteem of transracial, international, and domestic adoptees. Pyschological Bulletin, 133(6), 1067–1083.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee, R. M. (2003). The transracial adoption paradox: History, research, and counseling implication of cultural socialization. The Counseling Psychologist, 31, 711–744.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lee, R. M., Grotevant, H. D., Hellerstedt, W. L., Gunnar, M. R., & The Minnesota International Adoption Project Team. (2006). Cultural socialization in families with internationally adopted children. Journal of Family Psychology, 20, 571–580.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lee, D. C., & Quintana, S. M. (2005). Benefits of cultural exposure and development of Korean perspective-taking ability for transracially adopted Korean children. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 11, 130–143.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Luthar, S. S., & Cicchetti, D. (2000). The construct of resilience: Implications for intervention and social policy. Development and Psychopathology, 12, 857–885.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Massatti, R. P., Vonk, M. E., & Gregoire, T. K. (2004). The reliability and validity of the Transracial Adoption Parenting Scale. Research on Social Work Practice, 14(1), 43–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Palacios, J., & Sánchez–Sandoval, Y. (2005). Beyond adopted/nonadopted comparisons. In D. M. Brodzinsky & J. Palacios (Eds.), Psychological issues in adoption: Research and practice (pp. 117–144). Westport, CT: Praeger.

    Google Scholar 

  • Panter, A. T., Daye, C. E., Allen, W. A., Wightman, L. F., & Deo, M. E. (2008). Everyday discrimination in a national sample of incoming law students. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 1(2), 67–79.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pinderhughes, E. E., Ponte, I. C., Shapiro, N., Theodore, M., Abo-Zena, M. M., & Vashchenko, M. (2009). Children adopted from China: Supporting/promoting racial and ethnic identity formation. Paper symposium, adoptive families: Processes that promote well-being and family connections. Denver, CO: Society for Research in Child Development.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ponte, I. C. Shapiro, N., Theodore, M. Abo-Zena, M. M., & Pinderhughes, E. E. (in preparation). Who I am and what’s on my mind: Transracially adopted children’s ethnic self-labels and related themes. Manuscript in preparation.

  • Rivas-Drake, D., Hughes, D., & Way, N. (2008). A closer look at peer discrimination, ethnic identity, and psychological well-being among urban Chinese American sixth graders. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 37(1), 12–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rojewski, J. W. (2005). A typical American family? How adoptive families acknowledge and incorporate Chinese cultural heritage into their lives. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 22, 133–164.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sandefur, G. D., & Meier, A. (2008). The family environment: Structure, material, resources and child care. In B. Brown (Ed.), Key indicators of child and youth well-being: Completing the picture (pp. 237–259). New York, NY: Taylor and Francis Group.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, D., & Brodzinsky, D. M. (2002). Coping with birthparent loss in adopted children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 43, 213–223.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Strauss, A. L., & Corbin, J. M. (1998). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. Thousand Oaks, CA.: Sage Publications, Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sue, D. W., Bucceri, J. M., Lin, A. I., Nadal, K. L., & Torino, G. C. (2007). Racial microaggressions and the Asian American experience. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 13(1), 72–81.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sue, D., Lin, A. I., Torino, G. C., Capodilupo, C. M., & Rivera, D. P. (2009). Racial microaggressions and difficult dialogues on race in the classroom. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 15, 183–190.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, K. A., & Tessler, R. C. (2007). Bicultural socialization among adoptive families: Where there is a will, there is a way. Journal of Family Issues, 28(9), 1189–1219.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tieman, W., Van der Ende, J., & Verhulst, F. C. (2005). Psychiatric disorders in young adult intercountry adoptees: An epidemiological study. American Journal of Psychiatry, 162, 592–598.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Triseliotis, J. (1993). Intercountry adoption: In whose best interests? In M. Humphrey & M. Humphrey (Eds.), Intercountry adoption: Practical experiences (pp. 129–137). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • US Census Bureau. (2000). Race and Hispanic or Latino [Data file]. Retrieved from http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/GCTTable?_bm=y&-context=gct&-ds_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U&-CONTEXT=gct&-mt_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U_GCTP6_ST2&-tree_id=4001&-redoLog=false&-_caller=geoselect&-geo_id=04000US25&-format=ST-7|ST-7S&-_lang=en.

  • US Department of State. (2010). Adoptions to the United States. Retrieved from http://adoption.state.gov/news/total_chart.html.

  • Van IJzendoorn, M. H., & Juffer, F. (2006). The Emanuel Milller Memorial Lecture 2006. Adoption as intervention. Meta-analytic evidence for massive catch-up and plasticity in physical, socio-emotional, and cognitive development. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 47, 1228–1245.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Vonk, E. (2001). Cultural competence for transracial adoptive parents. Social Work, 46, 246–256.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wegar, K. (2000). Adoption, family ideology, and social stigma: Bias in community attitudes, adoption research and practice. Family Relations, 49(4), 363–370.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wong, F., & Halgin, R. (2006). The “model minority”: Bane or blessing for Asian Americans? Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 34(1), 38–49.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA

    M. Vashchenko, M. D’Aleo & E. E. Pinderhughes

Authors
  1. M. Vashchenko
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. M. D’Aleo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. E. E. Pinderhughes
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to M. Vashchenko.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Vashchenko, M., D’Aleo, M. & Pinderhughes, E.E. “Just Beyond my Front Door”: Public Discourse Experiences of Children Adopted from China. Am J Community Psychol 49, 246–257 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-011-9441-2

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-011-9441-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation