Identity Development in Transracially Adopted Asian/American College/University Students

Abstract

The experience of adopted college/university students and young adults, and their unique challenges in understanding the development of their personal identities, is an important topic for research and clinical practice with adopted people. This paper examines college and university students’ understanding of how their life experiences of being born Asian but being raised in a non-Asian adoptive family have influenced their personal racial identity formation and how this may have affected their choices of study and career. In addition to subjects’ responses to a questionnaire, participants completed five peer-reviewed scales that revealed information about how they perceive their racial identities and their efforts to distinguish genetics from environmental influences on their personal identities. This article reports on the key findings that have significance for psychotherapists treating these students.