| Historically, adoption agencies have tried to match adoptive parents and children, not only by physical characteristics, but also by religion and social class. More recently, a new paradigm has evolved, that of the "interracial," "transracial," "intercultural," "cross-cultural," or "international" adoption. This phenomenon is an accommodation to reality, the reality that although inracial adoption has long been the permanent program within child care services in America, there is a shortage of natively born available adoptable children, while the demand for adoption remains high. Adoption, international or intercountry, seems to be the best alternative for raising homeless children.; The question one asks, can different raced parents give children what they need to become happy productive adults? The answer to this question is unclear, yet decisions are made without empirical data to support them. Parents seeking to adopt are certain they can provide not equally, but more adequately for prospective adoptees, while others question this assumption. These children affect society in many ways. They relate to people and their families in all of the ways other children do.; This study examined international adoption and identified those self-reported child and parent factors that are related to healthy adjustment. Eighty-two adoptive parents, 79 mothers and 3 fathers completed the Child Behavior Checklist and Profile for Ages 1½--5 (CBCL, Achenbach, & Rescorla, 2000), the Parent-Child Relationship Inventory (PCRI, Gerard, 1994), and a demographic profile.; Quantitative data were collected from these surveys and a linear regression model was used to help determine whether the child predictor variables of Age Orphaned, Months in Care, and Age Placed, along with parent predictor variables of Parent Education and PCRI scales were significant predictors of child adjustment.; A univariate analysis of variance was used to examine the relationships between predictor variables of parent education, and parent occupation.; Results of this descriptive study showed that, in general, Asian adoptees develop much like other children. |
