Intercountry Adoption from China: Examining Cultural Heritage and Other Postadoption Issues

by Rojewski, Jay W.

• ISBN13: 9780897897549
• ISBN10: 0897897544
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-06-30
• Publisher: Greenwood Pub Group

Summary

Starting with questions about how to incorporate Chinese culture and custom into the lives of their adopted daughters Emily and Claire, the authors began a year-long search for answers. The result is a detailed examination of the post-adoptive views, actions, and experiences of a national sample of families with children from China toward acknowledging their adopted child's Chinese cultural-heritage and the issues they face together as a multicultural family. Historical and present-day issues affecting intercountry adoptees and their families, such as arguments used to support or oppose intercountry and transracial adoption, developmental delay and the effects of institutionalization on Chinese adoptees, parent-child attachment, discrimination and racial prejudice, and identity development, are detailed. Parents' beliefs and experiences on these issues are supplemented by a multi-disciplined, comprehensive review of available literature. While occasionally relying on personal experiences, this book is not about the authors' personal adoption story and parenting experiences. Rather, the focus is on common experiences and reactions of adoptive families who were, for the most part, firmly ensconced in the cultural mainstream but now find themselves viewed differently by society; these parents find that issues of culture, race, and ethnicity have become an important part of their everyday lives. Adoption scholars and professionals, as well as adoptive parents, will benefit from reading Intercountry Adoption from China.

Author Biography

JAY W. ROJEWSKI is a professor in the Department of Occupational Studies, University of Georgia. He has published widely in scholarly journals primarily on his work with career behavior, career development, and occupational choice of adolescents and young adults. He is the past editor of The Journal for Vocational Special Needs Education and the Journal of Vocational Education Research. With his wife, Jacy, he is the proud parent of a four-year old daughter, Emily, who was adopted from Fuzhou China in 1997, and baby Claire who is waiting for the family in China.JACY L. ROJEWSKI is a special education teacher at Morgan Country Middle School in Madison, Georgia, a state-recognized School of Excellence, where she is responsible for teaching students with mild learning and behavioral disabilities,

Table of Contents

Figures and Tables	ix
Preface	xi
Background and Context of Intercountry Adoption and Research Study	1	(18)
Philosophical Issues and Concerns Surrounding Intercountry Adoption	19	(12)
The Process of Intercountry Adoption from China	31	(10)
``And Baby Makes Three'': Attachment and Adjustment Issues	41	(32)
Addressing Chinese Culture and Heritage	73	(36)
Race, Discrimination, and the Reactions of Strangers	109	(18)
Preferential Adoptions: Family Size and Single Parenting	127	(16)
Who Am I? Racial, Ethnic, and Cultural Identity Development	143	(16)
Final Thoughts: Where Do We Go from Here?	159	(30)
Appendixes
A Select Studies Examining the Behavior and Adjustment Patterns of International Adoptees	177	(8)
B Select Studies Examining How Adoptive Families Acknowledge and Nurture the Cultural Heritage of Intercountry Adoptees	185	(4)
References	189	(14)
Author Index	203	(6)
Subject Index	209