Study of Adult Adoptees’ Identity Issues

From Adoptive Families Magazine:

The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute released a major study on adoptees’ identity formation. The research included survey responses from 468 adult adoptees, and the study is the most extensive examination of adult adoptive identity to date. (Read the full report at http://www.adoptioninstitute.org/.) Key findings include:

• Adoption becomes increasingly significant for most adoptees—and race/ethnicity grows in importance for adoptees of color—into adulthood, contrary to the notion that these factors diminish in importance after adolescence.
• Adoption-related teasing is a reality for many adoptees, but more so for whites. Race trumped adoption as a cause for teasing for adoptees of color, and a majority experienced race-based discrimination rather than (or in addition to) adoption-related negativity.
• A majority of transracially adopted adults wanted to be white as children, though most eventually grew to identify themselves as members of their racial/ethnic group.
• The most effective strategies for achieving positive identity formation are travel to birth countries and attending racially diverse schools for transracial adoptees, and contact with birth relatives for white adoptees.