ABSTRACT
International adoptions have been less politicized than domestic transracial adoptions in the United States, because many believe that issues such as ethnic identity and mental health of internationally adopted children are less important when one considers the consequences of remaining in an orphanage or an economically depressed country (Ressler, Boothby, & Steinbock, 1988). Furthermore, international adoptions have received less research attention than domestic transracial adoptions because it is difficult for researchers to extrapolate and transfer research findings from one ethnic group to another, given that social identity formation can be changed according to social, environmental, and historical processes. Thus, despite the potential significance of ethnic identity for transculturally adopted children, empirical attention to the subject has been limited. Furthermore, most research initiated during the 1970s and 1980s concentrated on a single factor such as the self-esteem or mental health of adopted children, thereby neglecting the complex relationship between adoptive parenting approaches and the children’s ethnic identity formation processes.
