December 04, 2005
APA Monitor Cover Story on Adoption
The cover story of the December issue of the Monitor on Psychology -- APA's monthly journal on professional issues -- is about the 21st century family and includes an article on adoption in which I, along with my UMN colleague and mentor Dr. Hal Grotevant, are quoted. Check out the featured article titled Adopting a New American Family. If you just want to know what I said, I've excerpted the passage below.
Among those striving to fill the adoption research gaps is UM associate professor of psychology Richard Lee, PhD, who participates in the university's multidisciplinary International Adoption Project, a large-scale survey of Minnesota parents who adopted internationally between 1990 and 1998. In the project, led by developmental psychologist Megan Gunnar, PhD, UM researchers surveyed more than 2,500 parents about their children's health, development and adjustment. They also asked participants whether their employers offered leave for the adoption, how their kids have fared academically and how they managed adoption costs, among other topics.
Lee, a second-generation Korean American, says his personal friendships with many in the Korean-American adoption community spurred his interest in this overlooked segment of the Asian American population. He's using the data to explore cultural socialization practices in families who have adopted internationally. Some adoptive parents expose their children to their birth culture by sending them to language classes and culture camps or setting up playdates with other internationally adopted children. They may also make a conscious effort to talk with their child about racism and discrimination. But what's not known, Lee maintains, is how these efforts affect their children's well-being or cultural or ethnic identity, or provide a buffer against racism or discrimination as they grow older.
"We presume that if parents socialize kids in a certain way, those outcomes will be protective factors," says Lee. "But there is actually very little research on that."
Posted by richlee at December 4, 2005 01:55 PM