ABSTRACT
Prospective adoptive parents make choices of which children to adopt within restrictions of policies, practice, availability, and social norms. Research has found that within given adoption restrictions and options, prospective adoptive parents tend to be open regarding child gender but prefer to form families that resemble those formed biologically regarding race. While adoptive parents prefer same-race adoption, they are generally willing to adopt a child of another race. This is in part related to the limited availability of White infants, the large number of White potential adoptive parents, and the large number of children of color waiting for placement. However, while there is stated willingness of White adoptive parents to adopt children of color, there is less willingness to adopt Black children, and even less for African American children. Choices and preferences are further influenced by child gender, age, health, ability, and nationality. This chapter summarizes relevant research on potential adoptive parent preferences, focusing on child gender and race before discussing implications for policy and practice.
