The Socio Economic Attainment Of Adoptees - 1214 Words

During the second half of the 20th century, there has been unprecedented growth in adoptions (Selman, 2009; Stolley, 1993). Not only has the number of adoptees more than doubled from approximately 50,000 in the 1940’s to more than 110,000 in 1990 (Stolley, 1993), but this increase has been the inspiration of significant studies related to the psychological, social and physical health of the adopted population. Furthermore, in the past four decades, the U.S. has become the number one destination of adopted children from foreign countries. While there have been significant studies to provide a portrait relating to how adoptees adapt to their families, (L. Hamilton, Cheng, Powell, 2007; Hellerstedt 2008), there remains major unanswered†¦show more content†¦Thomas examines the relationship between adoption status and schooling progress differs between foreign-born and U.S. born children. He also examines if foreign-born adopted children are more likely to lag behind in school compared to U.S. born adoptees. Lastly, he examines if adoption status results in differentiated patterns of educational inclusion among immigrant children. In addition, he also examines how these variations are associated to racial and ethnic differences. Thomas tests four hypothesis. Hypothesis 1 proposes adopted children have a schooling disadvantage compared to biological peers but the disadvantage is smaller among immigrants compared to U.S. natives. Hypothesis 2 tests whether adopted children of immigrant parents are more lik ely to fall behind in school compared to their peers with U.S. born parents. Hypothesis 3 suggests foreign born adoptees have less favorable schooling outcomes compared to adoptees born in the United States. Hypothesis 4 proposes minorities, especially Black face additional barriers of prejudice and discrimination and because of this realize the least educational gains when compared to white peers. Thomas avoids two common shortcomings of studies oabout adopted children. Many are based on â€Å"convenience samples† and â€Å"small numbers of observations† (Brodzinsky, 1993; Shiano Tuan, 2008). By using pooled data from the American Community Survey (ACS) over a