Growing up adopted: an examination of adoptees' socialization experiences

Abstract

This study examined, in an exploratory fashion, the self-reported positive and negative remarks made to adult adoptees' while growing up as an adopted person in our culture and their attitudes towards adoption. Our current understanding of adoption adjustment is based on unsupported opinion emanating primarily from theory, which tends to frame adoption as an inherently negative experience with loss and is pathology based. Furthermore, although numerous authors' point to the harmful nature of the current thinking, which stigmatizes adopted individuals, empirical research has failed to provide cogent findings to support this notion. Participants were 50 adopted undergraduate students who volunteered to participate for research credits or a chance to win 25 lottery tickets. Adopted individuals were administered an Adoption Experiences Questionnaire (AEQ) and an Attitudes Towards Adoption Questionnaire (ATAQ). Overall, adoptees reported both negative and positive remarks and experiences. However, adoptees reported more positive experiences and gave more examples of these types of experiences. Furthermore, positive experiences were more likely to correlate with positive attitudes towards adoption, while negative experiences were more likely to correlate with negative attitudes towards adoption. Clinical implications are discussed with a particular focus on intervening with adoptive parents since their importance in the lives of their adopted children has been delineated in this study. Also, the importance of increasing positive images associated with adoption and impacting responsible media portrayals are discussed. Finally, a brief discussion of overall societal reactions to adoption is discussed along with future research directions.