'Beyond Culture Camp'

In November of this year, the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute released research on promoting healthy identity formation in adoption, called "Beyond Culture Camp: Promoting Healthy Identity Formation in Adoption". Most of the transracial adoptees interviewed were Koreans adopted transnationally.

Here are the central findings:

• Adoption is an increasingly significant aspect of identity for adopted people as they age, and remains so even when they are adults.

• Race/Ethnicity is an increasingly significant aspect of identity for those adopted across color and culture.

• Coping with discrimination is an important aspect of coming to terms with racial/ethnic identity for adoptees of color.

• Discrimination based on adoption is a reality, but more so for white adoptees - who also report being somewhat less comfortable with their adoptive identity as adults than their transracially adopted counterparts.

• Most transracial adoptees considered themselves white or wanted to be white as children.

• Positive racial/ethnic identity development is most effectively facilitated by "lived" experiences such as travel to native country or culture, attending racially diverse schools, and having role models of their own race/identity.

• Contact with birth relatives, especially according to white respondents, is the most helpful factor in achieving a positive adoptive identity.

• Different factors predict comfort with adoptive and racial/ethnic identity for transracial and white adoptees.

It's all very interesting, and seems to confirm most of what Pact has been telling us all along - that openness matters, that race matters, and that we need to be extra prepared to help our child through their journey of developing a healthy sense of self. Hopefully this means we're on the right track.

(Next, and final, home study visit has been scheduled for Monday evening. We're excited!)