Transracial Adoption and Transracial Socialization: Clinical Implications and Recommendations

Reynolds, Jason; Wing, Hannah M.

doi:10.1891/9780826154156.0003

Cited by 4 publications

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“…Parents who value multiculturalism tend to provide transracial adoptees with opportunities to discuss race and racism and offer exposure to aspects of their birth culture. They also make efforts to educate themselves and engage in birth cultural events with their children (Reynolds & Wing, 2020). These adoptive parents may also experience their family unit as being a multicultural entity, captured by Kirk (1984) shared fate theory (Kim et al, 2012).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This duality has been labeled the transracial adoption paradox (Lee, 2003), which is further exacerbated by the perception that transracial adoptees are not legitimate members of their adoptive families due to the incongruence in racial appearance (Goss, 2018). While Chinese transracial adoptees may have felt self-conscious about this before (Goss et al, 2017; Reynolds & Wing, 2020), they may become hyper aware of the mismatch during the current pandemic.…”

Section: Anti-asian Sentiment Amidst the Coronavirus Pandemicmentioning

confidence: 99%

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From model minority to racial threat: Chinese transracial adoptees’ experience navigating the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wing¹,

Park‐Taylor²

2022

Asian American Journal of Psychology

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This qualitative study explores Chinese transracial adoptees' experiences navigating the current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, focusing on identity negotiation, sense of belonging, and encounters with COVID-19-related racism at the familial, community, and societal level. Participants (N = 20) were Chinese transracial adoptees, born in China and raised in White adoptive families in the United States, between the ages of 19 and 28 (M = 23.1), who were between 6 and 16 months (M = 9.5) when they were adopted. Data collected through in-depth, semistructured individual interviews, conducted via Zoom, were coded using phenomenological analysis. Findings suggest a superordinate theme in which COVID-19 presents a multipronged threat to Chinese transracial adoptees. Not only are they unjustly feared and judged by others, but their physical safety and psychological well-being are in jeopardy. This overarching theme was characterized by three core themes: (a) from model minority to racial threat, (b) questioning of identity and sense of belonging, and (c) COVID-19 pandemic as evoking thoughts of adoption. Subsequently, the following eight subthemes emerged: (a) Asian Americans perceived as a racial threat, (b) ongoing denial of anti-Asian racism, (c) coping with COVID-19-related racism, (d) solidarity with the Asian community yet deidentification with Chinese identity, (e) increased sense of being a perpetual foreigner in the U.S., (f) feeling of in-betweenness amplified by sociopolitical tension, (g) increased thoughts of birth parents, and (h) feelings about past and present restrictive government policies in China. Study limitations and future clinical and research directions are discussed. What is the public significance of this article?The present study offers insight into Chinese transracial adoptees' experience negotiating their racial identity and sense of belonging within their White families and in the United States amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings have the potential to give voice to Chinese transracial adoptees and their unique marginalization experiences, and increase acceptance of Chinese transracial adoptees within Asian American spaces and the U.S. at large.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Anti-asian Sentiment Amidst the Coronavirus Pandemicmentioning

confidence: 99%

From model minority to racial threat: Chinese transracial adoptees’ experience navigating the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wing¹,

Park‐Taylor²

2022

Asian American Journal of Psychology

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“…Although White adoptive parents may have delegitimized their children's racial experience previously (Morgan & Langrehr, 2019), our participants attempted to build their White parents' empathy by disclosing personal incidents of racism. Some participants also noted that their White parents' involvement in transracial adoption may itself perpetuate racial biases, including a traditional preference for Asians over Black and Latinx children (Reynolds & Wing, 2020), stemming from the belief that Asians are more assimilable (Oh, 2012).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Female Chinese transracial adoptees’ racial awakening amid dual racial pandemics.

Wing¹,

Park‐Taylor²

2024

Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology

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Objectives: 2020 was marked by two racial pandemics-COVID-19-related attacks against Asians and the police brutality against Blacks that spurred the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement-calling attention to racial privilege and oppression in American society. The present study explores female Chinese transracial adoptees' unique lived experiences during this racially salient moment. Method: A phenomenological approach captured how 20 female Chinese transracial adoptees navigated and made sense of the dual racial pandemics and the subsequent impact on their racial awareness, identity development, and advocacy. Data were collected using semistructured individual Zoom interviews and coded using phenomenological analysis. Results: Findings suggest the dual pandemics acted as catalysts for female Chinese transracial adoptees' racial consciousness and reevaluation of their positionality within the racial hierarchy. Three core themes emerged: female transracial adoptees' new self-understanding as racial beings; their perspective on their place within the White-Black dichotomy; and their role in promoting racial justice. Conclusions: Our findings contribute to the literature by highlighting the complexities of female Chinese transracial adoptees' racialized selves as children of color who have been raised in White families; their motivations to foster racial justice; and their ability to facilitate race talk. Public Significance StatementWe find ourselves in a unique time in history, when anti-Asian racism associated with the COVID-19 health crisis is intersecting with the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. These dual pandemics have served to awaken female Chinese transracial adoptees to their racial reality straddling two racial worlds, propelling them to explore their identities and their ability to enact social change. Chinese transracial adoptees must make sense of conflicted feelings about their proximity to Whiteness, their position within the racial hierarchy, and their role in the BLM movement.

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“…The longstanding history of transracial adoption in the United States, and the accompanying criticism of its continued practice due to concerns about the ability of adoptive parents to engage in racial, ethnic, and cultural socialization of their adopted children of color remains a contentious debate (Reynolds & Wing, 2020). On the one hand, children need loving homes and families, and there are waiting families ready and excited to adopt children.…”

Section: Racial Hierarchy and Racial Dynamics In The United Statesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While Asian children raised with biological Asian families may not be prepared for the racism they will experience outside the home, they may be provided with varying degrees of racial, ethnic, and cultural socialization in ways that transracial adoptees would not (see Reynolds et al, 2021; Reynolds & Wing, 2020). They may also have ethnic forenames and/or surnames (Reynolds et al, 2020, 2022), access to Asian representation and role models in their lives, receive some degree of language acquisition, and in general, follow a different path to identity development without the cultural and racial erasure that many transracial adoptees experience being raised in White families and communities (Eng & Han, 2019).…”

Section: Racial Hierarchy and Racial Dynamics In The United Statesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Proximity to whiteness: Transracial Korean and Chinese American adoptees navigating discussions about racism and intersectionality with White adoptive parents.

Reynolds (Taewon Choi),

Goyal,

Nam

2024

Qualitative Psychology

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Following the Korean War in 1953 and China’s One-Child Policy in 1979, over 200,000 Korean children and 120,000 Chinese children were adopted into Western countries; 107,000 Korean children and 80,000 Chinese children were placed in the Unites States, specifically. This study explored the experiences of adult transracial Korean and Chinese adoptees who have engaged in discussions with their White adoptive parents related to topics and experiences with racism, discrimination, and intersectional identities and to understand some of the challenges, barriers, and successes. This topic is particularly relevant in light of the upsurge in violence toward the Asian and Asian American Pacific Islander communities during the global pandemic and the collective action of the Black Lives Matter movement. The present study utilized reflexive thematic analysis (TA) methods within constructivist-interpretivist and criticalist paradigms using internalized racism as a theoretical framework. Twenty-two participants (Ages 20–48, M = 29.5 years) were interviewed using a semistructured protocol. Thirteen participants were adopted from China, and nine participants were adopted from Korea. Following TA coding procedures, the team generated three overarching domain summary themes and 10 patterns of shared-meaning themes. Limitations, clinical implications, and future areas of research are discussed.

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Transracial Adoption and Transracial Socialization: Clinical Implications and Recommendations

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

From model minority to racial threat: Chinese transracial adoptees’ experience navigating the COVID-19 pandemic.

From model minority to racial threat: Chinese transracial adoptees’ experience navigating the COVID-19 pandemic.

Female Chinese transracial adoptees’ racial awakening amid dual racial pandemics.

Proximity to whiteness: Transracial Korean and Chinese American adoptees navigating discussions about racism and intersectionality with White adoptive parents.

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