ABSTRACT
In the 1984 study, we compared responses to questions that were asked of both the parents and the adolescents in their separate interviews. The topics concerned the racial characteristics of friends and dates, grades in school, favorite activities, consensus or lack of it about the adolescent’s future regarding schooling and work. We also compared the parents’ and the adolescents’ perceptions of how close they are likely to be to each other when the adolescent leaves the family home, as well as their expectations about the racial characteristics of the community in which the adolescent is likely to live as an adult and the racial background of the adolescent’s choice of a marriage partner. Responses about the adolescents’ interests in finding their birth parents and the likelihood that they will try to do so were also compared against the adopted parents’ support for such efforts.
