The Impact of Racial-Ethnic Socialization Practices on International Transracial Adoptee Identity Development

Abstract

Parent involvement in racial-ethnic socialization of transracial adoptees has been studied primarily via the parent perspective. The goal of this study was to explore the adoptee’s perspective about how their parents’ racial-ethnic socialization strategies impacted their own sense of racial and ethnic identity. Fourteen female Asian international transracial adoptees were interviewed and the data were analyzed using Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR; Hill et al., 1997). The findings highlight the challenges of identity development for transracial adoptees. These results and discussion contribute to the existing literature and debate on this topic by prompting consideration of alterations to the adoption process and necessary work to be done by White adoptive parents.