Parental assimiliation of internationally adopted children
Date
2010Author
Helin, Tarisa
Maier, Candice
Advisor(s)
Wolfgram, Susan M
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
International adoption has been increasing in
the United States since the 1970's (Grotevant, Gunnar, Hellerstedt, Johnson, Lee, & Madsen, 2007). The purpose of this exploratory pilot study was to examine the attitudes of parents who have adopted internationally through a
Midwestern adoption agency. The central research question was "What are the attitudes of parents as they assimilate their internationally adopted child?" The researchers predicted
that parents would be open to discussing issues that promote positive ethnic identity. It was also hypothesized that adoptive parents would respond positively to receiving useful cultural
resources from their adoption agencies. There was a 27% return rate, resulting in nine study participants. Survey data was statistically analyzed using frequencies and mean
comparisons. Significance testing as well as reliability were not conducted due to the small sample size. Overall, findings supported the hypotheses; qualitative comments were
analyzed. Implications for practitioners include providing access to parents of useful cultural resources. Implications for future research would be to obtain a larger sample.