Making Families Through Adoption (Contemporary Family Perspectives (CFP))

169 Pages·2012·4.145 MB·English

by  Nancy E. Riley, Krista E. Van Vleet

Contemporary
Family Perspectives
A Series by Pine Forge Press, an imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc
Series Editor
Susan J. Ferguson
Grinnell College
Volumes in This Series
Families: A Social Class Perspective
Shirley A. Hill
Making Families Through Adoption
Nancy E. Riley and Krista E.Van Vleet
Forthcoming
Families and Health, Second Edition
Janet Grochowski
Global Families, Second Edition
Meg W. Karraker
Key Issues in American Family Policy
Janet Z. Giele
Family Caregiving in Later Life
Twyla Hill
Contemporary
Family Perspectives
A Series by Pine Forge Press, an imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc
Series Editor
Susan J. Ferguson
Grinnell College
Volumes in This Series
Families: A Social Class Perspective
Shirley A. Hill
Making Families Through Adoption
Nancy E. Riley and Krista E.Van Vleet
Forthcoming
Families and Health, Second Edition
Janet Grochowski
Global Families, Second Edition
Meg W. Karraker
Key Issues in American Family Policy
Janet Z. Giele
Family Caregiving in Later Life
Twyla Hill
FOR INFORMATION: Copyright © 2012 by Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of
SAGE Publications, Inc.
Pine Forge Press
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be
An Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc. reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means,
2455 Teller Road electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
Thousand Oaks, California 91320 recording, or by any information storage and retrieval
E-mail: [email protected] system, without permission in writing from the
publisher.
SAGE Publications Ltd.
1 Oliver’s Yard
55 City Road
London EC1Y 1SP
Printed in the United States of America
United Kingdom
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
SAGE Publications India Pvt. Ltd.
B 1/I 1 Mohan Cooperative Industrial Area Riley, Nancy.
Mathura Road, New Delhi 110 044
India Making families through adoption /
Nancy E. Riley, Krista E. Van Vleet.
SAGE Publications Asia-Pacific Pte. Ltd.
p. cm. — (Contemporary family perspectives)
33 Pekin Street #02-01
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Far East Square
Singapore 048763 ISBN 978-1-4129-9800-0 (pbk. : acid-free paper)
1. Adoption—United States. 2. Families—United
States. 3. Intercountry adoption.
4. Interracial adoption. 5. Interethnic adoption.
6. Adoption. I. Van Vleet, Krista E., 1965- II. Title.
Acquisitions Editor: David Repetto
Editorial Assistant: Maggie Stanley
HV875.55.R55 2012
Production Editor: Kelle Schillaci 362.7340973—dc22 2011001743
Copy Editor: Barbara Corrigan
Typesetter: C&M Digitals (P) Ltd. This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Proofreader: Joyce Li
11 12 13 14 15 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Indexer: Will Ragsdale
Cover Designer: Janet Kiesel
Marketing Manager: Erica DeLuca
Permissions Editor: Karen Ehrmann
Contents
Series Preface: Contemporary Family Perspectives vii
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
Making Families: The Inequalities and Intimacies of Adoption 1
Adoption in the United States 9
Definitions 9
Adoption and Statistics 11
1. Adoption Across Cultures 15
Ethnographic Cases 16
The Preference for Fostering in West Africa 16
The Commonality of Child Circulation in the Andes 21
The Stigma of Adoption in the Middle East 24
Exploring the Significance of Cases 26
Debunking the Opposition between
Natural and Adoptive Parents 27
Who Is Responsible for Raising Children? 30
History Comes Up Behind Us: Fostering and
Adoption as Shaped by Context 31
Conclusions 35
2. Adoption in the United States: Historical Perspectives 37
Children’s Role in Society 38
What Makes a Family? Contradictions and
Controversies in American Adoption 42
The Growing Demand for Adoptable Babies and the Increased
Regulation of Adoption: Who Are the Best Mothers? 44
Adoption Secrecy in the Formation of As-If Families 46
Making Families Through Adoption in the Postwar Period 48
Adoption in the United States Today 50
Open Adoption 52
Conclusions 53
3. Adoption: Private Decisions, Public Influences 55
Who Adopts? Who Is Adopted? 57
Socioeconomic Class: The Power of Money 57
The Children: Characteristics of Adopted Children 61
The Parents: Marital Status and Sexual Orientation 62
What Makes a Proper Family? Interpreting Social Norms 63
The Role of the State 65
Comparative Perspectives on Government’s Role in Adoption 69
Adoption in China 69
Adoption in Norway 71
Conclusions 72
4. Race, Ethnicity, and Racism in Adoption and Fosterage Systems 73
Race: A Social Construct, a Forceful Reality 74
Race in U.S. Adoption History 77
Transracial Adoption: Issues and Debates 79
The Foster System and Adoption in the United States 83
Native Americans and Adoption in the
United States and Canada 87
Conclusions 91
5. The Practices of Transnational Adoption 94
The Global Transfer of Children 96
Rules Governing Intercountry Adoptions 99
The Receiving Countries 101
Early International Adoption as Humanitarian Aid 101
The United States 104
Adoption in Norway 105
The Sending Countries 107
Korea 107
Romania 109
Guatemala 111
China and Its Abandoned Girls 113
After Adoption: The Making of Transnational Families 116
Conclusions 122
Conclusion 123
Bibliography 132
Further Exploration 143
Index 148
About the Authors 155
Series Preface
Contemporary Family Perspectives
Susan J. Ferguson
Grinnell College
T
he family is one of the most private and pervasive social institutions
in U.S. society. At the same time, public discussions and debates
about the institution of the family persist. Some scholars and public figures
claim that the family is declining or dying or that the contemporary family
is in crisis or is morally deficient. Other scholars argue that the family has
been caught in the larger culture wars taking place in the United States. The
current debates about legalizing same-sex marriage are one example of this
larger public discussion about the institution of the family. Regardless of
one’s perspective—viewing the family as declining or caught in broader
political struggles—scholars agree that the institution has undergone dra-
matic transformations in recent decades. U.S. demographic data reveal that
fewer people are married, divorce rates remain high, at almost 50 percent,
and more families are living in poverty. In addition, people are creating new
kinds of families via Internet dating, cohabitation, single-parent adoption,
committed couples living apart, donor insemination, and polyamorous rela-
tionships. The demographic data and ethnographic research on new family
forms require that family scholars pay attention to a variety of family struc-
tures, processes, ideologies, and social norms. In particular, scholars need
to address important questions about the family, such as, What is the future
of marriage? Is divorce harmful to individuals, to the institution of the fam-
ily, and/or to society? Why are rates of family violence so high? Are we
living in a postdating culture? How do poverty and welfare policies affect
families? How is child rearing changing now that so many parents work
vii
viii——Making Families Through Adoption
outside the home and children spend time with caretakers other than their
parents? Finally, how are families socially constructed in various societies
and cultures?
Most sociologists and family scholars agree that the family is a dynamic
social institution that is continually changing as other social structures and
individuals in society change. The family also is a social construction with
complex and shifting age, gender, race, and social class meanings. Many excel-
lent studies are currently investigating the changing structures of the institu-
tion of the family and the lived experiences and meanings of families.
Contemporary Family Perspectives is a series of short texts and research
monographs that provides a forum for the best of this burgeoning scholarship.
The series aims to recognize the diversity of families that exist in the United
States and globally. A second goal is for the series to better inform pedagogy
and future family scholarship about this diversity of families. The series also
seeks to connect family scholarship to a broader audience beyond the class-
room by informing the public and by ensuring that family studies remain
central to contemporary policy debates and to social action. Each short text
contains the most outstanding current scholarship on the family from a variety
of disciplines, including sociology, demography, policy studies, social work,
human development, and psychology. Moreover, each short text is authored
by a leading family scholar or scholars who bring their unique disciplinary
perspective to an understanding of contemporary families.
Contemporary Family Perspectives provides the most advanced scholar-
ship and up-to-date findings on the family. Each volume contains a brief
overview of significant scholarship on that family topic, including critical
current debates or areas of scholarly disagreement. In addition to providing
an assessment of the latest findings related to their family topic, authors
examine the family utilizing an intersectional framework of race-ethnicity,
social class, gender, and sexuality. Much of the research is interdisciplinary,
with a number of theoretical frameworks and methodological approaches
presented. Several of the family scholars use a historical lens as well to ground
their contemporary research. A particular strength of the series is that the
short texts appeal to undergraduate students as well as to family scholars, but
they are written in a way that makes them accessible to a larger public.
About This Volume
Making Families Through Adoption examines a critical family formation
process—adoption. Currently, only 2.4 percent of U.S. families are formed
through adoption. Historically and cross-culturally, however, the circulation
Series Preface——ix
of children through adoption or fostering has been a common practice. The
authors, sociologist Nancy E. Riley and anthropologist Krista E. Van Vleet
of Bowdoin College, argue that the current discourse on adoption is all
about choice but that in reality, adoption is immersed in cultural and social
beliefs, economic transactions, and political realities. Their research reveals
that while adoption has distinctive qualities across certain cultures, social
inequality is at the root of most adoptions: Women of lower statuses often
give children to women and families of higher social statuses.
This book, Making Families Through Adoption, provides a comprehen-
sive look at adoption in the United States and in other cultures. Riley and
Van Vleet begin their analysis with working definitions of adoption, foster-
ing, and child circulation. They then examine child circulation practices in
other cultures to see how these practices are windows into the larger society.
Adoption reveals broader social and cultural norms, including the meaning
and attributes of family. Next, Riley and Van Vleet examine adoption in the
United States using a historical lens.
They are particularly interested in U.S. historical constructions of what
constitutes family and how the value and roles of children have changed
over time. After laying this cross-cultural and historical groundwork, Riley
and Van Vleet focus on adoption in the contemporary context. The next
three chapters investigate U.S. adoption practices in depth by first looking at
the influence of socioeconomic status, marital status, and sexual orientation
of potential parents on adoption. They also examine how the characteristics
of children and governmental policies influence these seemingly private deci-
sions to adopt. The authors then explore race, ethnicity, and racism in adop-
tion and fosterage systems in the United States before turning their attention
to transnational adoption.
Making Families Through Adoption is relevant to courses on the family,
social inequality, cross-cultural studies, and public policy. This book is a
valuable resource to teachers and students in beginning to advanced courses
in sociology, anthropology, women’s studies, social work, policy studies, and
family studies. It also finds an audience among individuals who may work
with families, adoption, and foster care, such as social workers, counselors,
and other human service providers.