Adoption and Identity Formation
There has been an enormous amount of research conducted about adoptees and their problems with identity formation. Many of the researchers agree on some of the causes of identity formation problems in adolescent adoptees, while other researchers conclude that there is no significant difference in identity formation in adoptees and birth children. This paper will discuss some of the research which has been conducted and will attempt to answer the following questions: Do adoptees have identity formation difficulties during adolescence? If so, what are some of the causes of these vicissitudes? Is there a significant difference between identity formation of adoptees and nonadoptees? The National Adoption Center reports that fifty-two percent of adoptable children have attachment disorder symptoms. It was also found that the older the child when adopted, the higher the risk of social maladjustment (Benson et al., 1998). This is to say that a child who is adopted at one-week of age will have a better chance of "normal" adjustment than a child who is adopted at the age of ten. This may be due in part to the probability that an infant will learn how to trust, where as a ten-year-old may have more difficulty with this task, de
Hajal, F., & Rosenberg, E. (1991). The Family Life Cycle in Adoptive Families. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 61(1), 78-85. While most of the studies I read found that adoptees have difficulty in identity formation during adolescence, I did find an article which refutes this point. Kelly et al. (1998) write: McRoy, R., Grotevant, H., Furuta, A., & Lopez, S. (1990). Adoption Revelation and Communication Issues: Implications for Practice. Families in Society, 71, 550-557. Finding an identity, while considering both sets of parents is a difficult task for the adolescent. The adoptee does not want to hurt or offend his adoptive parents, and he also does not want to ignore what is known about his biological roots. Horner and Rosenberg (1991) write: The identity struggles of the adolescent are "part of a human need to connect with their natural clan and failure to do so may precipitate psychopathology" (Wegar, 1995). Also in agreement with Wegar, McRoy, and Baran is Frisk. Baran et al. (1975) wrote, "Frisk conceptualized that the lack of family background knowledge in the adoptee prevents the development of a healthy 'genetic ego' . . . ." In most of the studies surveyed, the researchers are in agreement about one fact. Vital to the adopted adolescent's identity development is the knowledge of the birth family and the circumstances surrounding the adoption. Without this information, the adolescent has difficulty deciding which family (birth or adopted) he resembles. During the search for an identity in adolescence, the child may face an array of problems including "hostility toward the adoptive parents, rejection of anger toward the birth parents, self-hatred, transracial adoption concerns, feeling of rootlessness . . . ." (McRoy et al., 1990). Wegar, K. (1995). Adoption and Mental Health: A Theoretical Critique of the Psychopathological Model. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 65(4), 540-548.
Some common words found in the essay are:
Horner Rosenberg, Goebel Lott, Frisk Baran, Trust Mistrust, , Adoption Center, Journal Orthopsychiatry, identity formation, Eric Erickson, adoptive parents, adopted children, Stein Hoopes, rosenberg 1991, horner rosenberg 1991, birth parents, horner rosenberg, et al, journal orthopsychiatry, american journal, McGue Sharma, american journal orthopsychiatry, identity adolescence, identity formation adopted, adoptees identity formation, et al 1990,
Approximate Word count = 2174
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
