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Transracial Adoption

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Transracial Adoption
What factors of transracial adoption can affect the child’s emotional development?

According to the recent findings of the NHIS (National Health Interview Survey), 8% of adoptions are transracial adoptions, and from this 8%, only 1% of the adoptees are adopted by white women. Even though this percentage isn’t quite huge the amount of effect it has upon the child is severe in some cases. Transracial adoption is when parents decide to adopt a child of a different race, either when a white family decides to adopt a black, hispanic, or Asian child and vice versa. In this research paper I will be focusing on when a white family adopts an African American child. I will also be specifically focusing on those children who were adopted during their
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Often there is this mindset the general people have towards adoptees. Many people believe that the children are put up for adoption because of their mother being raped or killed, as well as the adoptee themselves not being a planned child. During these situations the child will often find themselves trying to find a place to hide. However, in the type of transracial environment they are in, they are not able to hide because of the difference in the parents and child’s skin color. If this child was to have been adopted into a black family, the child would be able to pass as the parent’s child. Not being able to fit in during because of the previous reasons can have an affect upon the adoptee. One of them being the sense of disappointment and again feeling lost. This effect could go up into the child’s older teenage and even adulthood years.

“Transracial adoption is an approach to solve a problem”(Espindola, 22). As seen by many people transracial adoption is an effort in closing the gap between the whites and the blacks by the white families. Even though this might be the case because of the color blindness of the families, some families don’t intend on having special treatment for the adopted kids, as they want to treat all kids equally. The difference between a black family adopting a black child and a white family adopting a black child is that the black family unintentionally creates a more comfortable environment for the

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