Adoptive Identity: How Contexts within and beyond theFamily Shape Developmental Pathways

Abstract

The focus of this paper is adoptive identity, the sense of who one is as an adopted person. The paper first considers how identity has been shaped by recent social changes, and then explores the meaning of adoptive identity and its developmental course. Three contexts of development are examined: intrapsychic, the family environment, and contexts beyond the family, including relationships with friends, connection to community, and culture. Implications for professionals who work with adopted persons and for needed research are also discussed.

Exploring Birth Countries: The Mental Health Implications of Heritage Travel for Children/Adolescents Adopted Internationally

“…Racial and ethnic identity is a developmental process for all children, adopted or not (Quintana, 1994). However, it may be increasingly complex for youth adopted internationally/transracially as they recognize their "differentness" (i.e., in physical appearance, ethnic/cultural origins, abilities, or talents) from adoptive parents (Grotevant, 1997a;Grotevant, Dunbar, Kohler, & Lash Esau, 2000). Obvious physical differences within a family can engender increased (at times, intense) curiosity and observation from extended family, complete strangers, and casual observers (increasing the perception of narrative burden).…”

Parenting and Child Development in Adoptive Families: Does Parental Sexual Orientation Matter?

“…At the time of data collection, children were still young (M ¼ 3 years). The process of coming to understand adoption and developing an adoptive identity will unfold as the children grow older, and some children in the sample were probably too young to understand their adoptive status (Grotevant, Dunbar, Kohler, & Lash Esau, 2007). Our study was not likely to have captured other complex dynamics of gender and sexual development that will emerge as children age.…”

“…More broadly, future research exploring how social, cultural, and legal contexts affect well-being among adoptive families with lesbian and gay parents will be helpful. Future research could also address other aspects of lesbian and gay adoptive families likely to shape child outcomes, such as transracial or open adoption (Grotevant et al, 2007).…”

The Role of Heritage Camps in Identity Development Among Korean Transnational Adoptees: A Relational Dialectics Approach

“…We reasoned that adult adoptees would be more likely to have integrated their camp experiences into their self-perceptions than adolescent or preteen adoptees (see Bagley, 1992;Baden & Steward, 2007). This is not meant to suggest that identity studies with younger adoptees are unwarranted; such studies are common in the literature (see Dunbar & Grotevant, 2004;Grotevant, 1997;Grotevant et al, 2000). Instead, given the research that suggests that identity formation is a lifelong process (Grotevant, 1997;Helms, 1990), we opted to measure identity formation post-adolescence.…”

“…Such adoptions quite visibly highlight the lack of biological connections within the parent-child dyad, thereby subjecting the relationship to heightened public and scholarly scrutiny (Grotevant, Dunbar, Kohler, & Esau, 2000;Swize, 2002). Much research, for instance, is devoted to comparing transracial adoptees with non-adoptees and same-race adoptees on a variety of measures, including behavioral and psychological outcomes (generally referred to as outcome studies) and racial and ethnic identity processes (generally referred to as identity studies).…”