A Nationally Representative Comparison of Black and White Adoptive Parents of Black
Children
SEHSD Working Paper #2017-10
Paper presented at the annual meetings of the American Sociology AssociationSeattle, WA, August 20–23, 2016
***
Rose M. Kreider and Elizabeth RaleighFertility and Family Statistics Branch, US Census Bureau and Carleton College, respectively
** Disclaimer **
This paper is released to inform interested parties of ongoing research and to encourage discussion of work in progress. The views expressed on statistical or methodological issues are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the U.S. Census Bureau.
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IntroductionIn 1972, the National Association of Black Social Workers (NABSW) released a
statement in strong opposition to the transracial adoption of Black children by White parents.
Decrying “the placement of Black children in White homes for any reason,” they affirmed “the
inviolable position of Black children in Black families where they belong physically,
psychology, and culturally” (National Association of Black Social Workers, 1972).
The publication of the statement spurred a national debate over the merits of the
NABSW’s argument that “Black children in White homes are cut off from the healthy
development of themselves as Black people” (ibid). Proponents of the practice pointed to
research that found high levels of social and personal adjustment among Black transracial
adoptees (Grow and Shapiro, 1974). In addition, advocates for transracial adoption fervently
argued that without transracial adoption these children would languish in foster care (Bartholet,
2000).
Rita J. Simon and Howard Alstein were among the most vocal researchers, writing
prolifically on the case for transracial adoption (1977, 1994, 2000, 2001). In their earliest book,
published a few years after the NABSW’s statement, Simon and Alstein reviewed the literature
on the outcomes of transracially adopted children, asserting that cross racial placements are far
better alternatives to “the often dire effects of long-term institutionalization or, to a lesser degree,
the insecurity of foster placement” (1977, p. 22).
In response to these conclusions, opponents of transracial adoption rallied against the
notion that the only alternative to transracial adoption was foster care, countering that there were
ample numbers of Black families eager to adopt who faced unreasonable hurdles and systematic
discrimination by White social workers. They point to the conclusion of the NABSW’s
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statement, which “Denounce[d] the assertions that Blacks will not adopt,” and argued that
transracial placements would be “totally unnecessary” if Black families were not subject to the
“screening out device” of “the obstacle course of the traditional adoption process.” The NABSW
argued for expanded recruitment of Black adoptive families, urging a commitment to “the re-
orientation of the Black family, permitting sight to the strengths therein” (National Association
of Black Social Workers, 1972).
Despite the NABSW’s call for favoring race matching for Black children, over the last
forty-four years there has been a marked shift towards a race-neutral, colorblind adoption policy.
For example, the passage of the 1994 Multi-Ethnic Placement Act (MEPA) prohibited adoption
agencies receiving federal funding from taking race into account in their placement decisions
(Jennings, 2006). Notably, the language in the 1994 provision included a clause requiring
publicly funded agencies to diligently recruit a racially diverse pool of parents, but this loophole
was largely eliminated two years later when the act was reconfigured as the Inter-Ethnic
Placement Act (IEP) (McRoy et al., 1997). The amended MEPA-IEP underscored that “delaying
or denying a child’s foster care or adoptive placement on the basis of the child or family’s race,
color, or national origin” would not be tolerated (ibid). Together, these laws mandated a
colorblind approach to adoptive placements that was meant to increase the permanent placement
of Black children in adoptive families. Despite the measures put in place to facilitate the
transracial placement of Black children in White homes, we know that most adoptive parents,
regardless of race, choose to adopt a child of the same race (Ishizawa and Kubo, 2014).
Moreover, Black children, especially boys, are the least likely to be adopted from foster care
(Brooks, James, and Barth, 2002).
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As the debate surrounding transracial adoption churns on, it is important to note that we
know relatively little about families who adopt Black children – whether within race or across
race – especially at the population level. Data from the 2009-2011 American Community Survey
indicate that Black children are overrepresented among adopted children, 16 percent versus 13
percent of biological and stepchildren (Kreider and Lofquist, 2014). In addition, while 16 percent
of adopted children are Black, just 13 percent of adopted children live with a Black householder
(Kreider and Lofquist, 2014). In other words, there are more Black children in adoptive families
than there are Black adoptive parents. This finding suggests that when studying Black adopted
children, including transracial adoptive families is an important piece of the puzzle. But, given
that there are more Black adopted children in Black families than in White ones, it is integral to
shift the focus to include analyses of Black adoptive parents as well.
While there is a sizeable body of research on White adoptive parents’ approaches to
Black transracial parenting (Moosnick, 2004; Smith et al., 2011), there are few extant studies
with an explicit focus on Black adoptive parents. One reason for this oversight may be that 78
percent of adopted children have a White parent (Kreider and Lofquist, 2014), a figure that is
disproportionate to the population of White parents raising biological children. Another reason
for the relative absence of Black adoptive parents in the literature is that research shows 95
percent of Black adoptive parents adopt a child of the same race (Raleigh, 2012). Perhaps
because Black same-race adoptive families are not as visible – nor as controversial – as
transracial adoptive families, they have received less attention from social scientists.
The goal of this paper is to provide a nationally representative profile of parents who
have adopted Black children. Considering that these children are the personification of an
ideological debate on race relations in the United States, we argue that it is vital to develop a
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better understanding of these families. We seek to bridge an important gap in the literature by
identifying and describing key national benchmarks about Black adopted children raised by
either White or Black adoptive parents.
Research Questions
Our research questions focus on providing a profile of White, non-Hispanic and Black adoptive
parents of Black children.1 We focus on two questions:
1. What are the demographic characteristics of White and Black adoptive parents of Black
children?
2. How do White and Black adoptive parents with Black children compare with each other?
Review of the Literature
Why focus on Black adopted children?
Among social scientists, there has been a growing consensus that the racial divide is
becoming crudely trifurcated among Whites, so-called honorary Whites, and Blacks (Bonilla–
Silva, 2004). Whereas some Asians and Hispanics are able to assimilate as honorary Whites,
scholars note that Blacks face greater discrimination and barriers to social incorporation (Warren
and Twine, 1999; Yancey, 2003). This racial hierarchy is visible across numerous measures of
socioeconomic status such as educational attainment, labor force participation, residential
segregation, and health (see Charles, 2003; DiTomaso, Post, and Parks-Yancy, 2007; Phelan and
Link, 2015; Reardon and Owens, 2014 for reviews).
In addition, research on racial attitudes consistently points to a greater perceived social
distance between Whites and Blacks compared to Whites and non-Black racial minorities (Bobo
1From this point on, we refer to White, non-Hispanic adults as White.
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and Charles, 2009; Bobo et al., 2012). This emerging divide is especially apparent when asking
Whites about forming familial relationships across race through interracial marriage (Perry,
2014). Whereas studies generally find strong support for interracial marriage, fewer Whites say
that they would be comfortable with a family member marrying a Black person than any other
racial minority (Djamba and Kimuna, 2014). Taken together, these stark findings have led some
race scholars to argue that the American color line is changing from a White/non-White divide to
a Black/non-Black divide.
Lee and Bean (2010) characterize this evolution as a “diversity paradox,” arguing:
While the country exhibits a new diversity, and while intermarriage and multiraciality are projected to increase in the foreseeable future, the rates as intermarriage and multiracial reporting are occurring at various speeds for different groups, and the pace for blacks is the slowest. The unevenness of these suggests that boundaries are dissolving more rapidly for new immigrant groups such as Asians and Latinos, than for blacks (p. 186).
This racial distance between Whites and Blacks is visible in adoption such that the
transracial adoption of Black children is often seen as distinct from the transracial adoption of
Asian or Hispanic children. The difference between these types of placements is seen as so great
that adoption caseworkers often employ different language, referring to the placement of Black
children as transracial (Butler-Sweet, 2011; Fenster, 2005; Katz and Doyle, 2013; Kennedy,
1994), while many White parents prefer to characterize the adoption of foreign-born Asian or
Hispanic children as transnational or intercountry adoptions (Dubinsky, 2008; Jacobson, 2008;
Zhang and Lee, 2011).
Perhaps because of the controversies surrounding placing Black children with White
parents, there is far more extant research on transracial adoption than same-race Black adoptions.
Many studies focus on the well-being and adjustment of transracial adoptees, examining topics
such as racial identity development among children (see Hollingsworth, 1997 for review;), racial
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socialization practices by parents (Barn, 2013; Smith et al., 2011; Thomas and Tessler, 2007),
and the experiences of adult transracial adoptees (Patton, 2000; Samuels, 2009).
There is also a growing canon of work by adoption scholars identifying and describing
the racial hierarchy of adoption which positions Asian and Hispanic children as preferable to
Black children (Khanna and Killian, 2015; Quiroz, 2007; Raleigh, 2016). For example, in her
study of White parents with Chinese-born children, Dorow illustrates how White parents’
decisions to adopt from China “take on racial-cultural coherence through an imagined
intractability in White-Black difference alongside an imagined Asian flexibility” (2006, p. 376).
Summarizing this trend, Kubo notes in a review of the literature, “The common discourse that is
engendered from their stories is that the racial division between White and Black is too wide to
cross, in contrast to the differences between Whites and Asians” (2010, p. 281).
While these studies are useful in showing how racial hierarchies play out in adoption,
they are limited because they are based on small sample sizes that cannot be applied to the
population at large. Prior to Census 2000, which began to differentiate between adopted and step
children (Kreider, 2003), there was a dearth of nationally representative data on adoptive
families. Since then, there has been a growth of population-based research studying adoptive
families in general (Amato and Cheadle, 2008; Hamilton, et al., 2007), and transracial adoptive
families in particular (Ishizawa et al., 2006; Raleigh and Kao, 2013; Selman, 2009).
Most recently, the release of the National Survey of Adoptive Parents has enabled
researchers to paint a more detailed national picture of adoption, especially about the type of
adoptions (e.g. foster care, domestic, or international) parents pursue (Vandivere et al., 2009).
These data have been particularly helpful in showing that Black children tend to be adopted
either through foster care or private domestic adoption (Ishizawa and Kubo, 2014, see p. 649).
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One drawback of the survey is that since adoptive parents are more likely to be White, the
sample of Black adoptive parents is too small for detailed analyses (77 percent of the sample is
White). Moreover, because of the preference among White parents for White, Asian, or Hispanic
children, there are relatively few Black adopted children in the sample (n = 272) (ibid).
Jacobson and colleagues also use the NSAP in conjunction with a five percent subsample
of the U.S. Census to examine the racial composition of transracial adoptive families (2012).
Their work establishes some interesting national benchmarks about transracial adoption, showing
how transracial adoption is associated with higher income and education levels, but only for
White parents with Asian and Hispanic children and not White parents with Black children. In
addition, they find that Black children are among the least likely to be adopted by White parents,
“suggesting that much of the adoption of Black children is by Black families” (Jacobson et al.,
2012, p. 80). But since the authors’ focus was on transracial adoption, their study does not
include a demographic profile of Black adoptive parents.
Notably, extant national research on Black adopted children tends to treat Black children
as a monolithic group, ignoring potential differences between biracial and monoracial Blacks. In
some ways this practice makes sense given the legacy of hypodescent such that persons with
“one drop” of Black heritage were considered Black (Davis, 1991). Research suggests that
hypodescent remains a powerful model of racial identification for African Americans (Harris and
Sim, 2002), with parents of Black-White biracial children more likely to identify their sons and
daughters as Black (Tafoya et al., 2004).
Whereas it may be that Black adoptive parents are likely to racially identify their children
as Black regardless of whether they have multiracial ancestry, it is unclear whether White
adoptive parents abide by the same model. In fact, qualitative research suggests otherwise. In
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previous work, Raleigh has shown how White parents differentiate between biracial (part-White)
children and “full” Black children such that the former are seen as more desirable than the latter
(2016). Thus, it may be that White transracial adoptive parents are more likely to adopt a Black
child identified as more than one race whereas Black adoptive parents may not have a similar
preference.
Prior Research on Black Adoptive Parents
The bulk of published work on Black adoptive parents is based on a social work
perspective and tends to be based on convenience samples. For example, Prater and King (1988)
published one of the earliest studies on Black adoptive families, but the article was a brief
research note based on a regional convenience sample of 12 adoptive parents. A year later,
Hairston and Williams (1989) conducted a study based on 53 Black adoptive families, and found
that Black parents’ reasons for adopting were quite similar to that of White parents in that
infertility was a driving factor. Moreover, these families shared a similar demographic
background with White adoptive parents since most of their respondents were college educated.
These findings are surprising considering that at the population level, Black families have lower
levels of educational attainment (National Center for Education Statistics, 2015). Since little
research has been done focusing on Black adoptive parents, it is unclear whether these findings
pan out in the national data or if they are a result of a small and potentially biased qualitative
sample.
Since these early studies, two main topics have emerged in the occasional research
focused on Black adoptive families. The first is an examination of Black children’s outcomes in
same-race adoptive families (Alexander et al., 2004; Gillum and O’Brien, 2010; Schwartz and
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Austin, 2011; Smith-McKeever, 2006). Another vein of research has examined best practices for
promoting adoption among African Americans (Hollingsworth, 1997; McRoy et al., 1997).
Given the disproportionate number of Black children in foster care awaiting adoption, most of
these studies tend to focus on publically-funded adoptions (Gillum and O’Brien, 2010; see
Smith-McKeever and McRoy, 2005 for an exception).
In a review of the literature on Black families who adopt Black children, Gillum surmises
that the “major theme” of the research is that studies are sporadically published and not easily
replicable (2011, p. 327). Notably, Gillum ends her review with a call for a “continued research
focus on Black adoptive families,” arguing that an expanded knowledge about these families can
“provide data that can be used in addressing their needs” (ibid, p. 328). However, in the years
following the publication of the review, there has not been a renewed push to publish in this area.
While there is a growing body of research questioning why and how Black children
become available for adoption (Briggs, 2012; Roberts, 2002), social scientists have paid very
little attention to Black adoptive families. This absence is notable considering the sizeable body
of work on Black families in general (Furstenberg, 2007 for review). One factor accounting for
this exclusion may be the fact that there are higher rates of informal and kinship adoptions
among African Americans (Gibson et al., 2005, Sandven and Resnick, 1990; Stack, 1974), thus
making studies of formal adoptions less of a focus.
Some recent qualitative studies peripherally include analyses of Black adoptive families,
mostly through the lens of queer family formation. Moore’s (2011) work on the intersection of
race, class, and sexual orientation provides a valuable look at marginalized Black motherhood,
but only a small fraction of the women she interviews became mothers through adoption (see p.
132). Additionally, Goldberg’s (2012) research on gay adoptive fathers includes a handful of
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non-White men in the study, but not enough to lend a substantive look into Black adoptive
parenthood.
Missing from these analyses is a comprehensive national depiction of Black adopted
children and their families. In the following pages, we aim to provide a detailed description of
the demographic composition of parents who adopt Black children. Formulating a greater
understanding of who adopts Black children is integral to pushing the conversation about
adoption forward. Importantly, we do not seek to weigh in on the contentious debate surrounding
transracial adoption. Rather, our goal is to provide a national benchmark of Black adoptive
parents so that researchers have a better understanding of these families, particularly Black
adoptive parents of Black children.
Data and Analysis Plan
This paper will use the internal 2010-2014 American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year
data. Since we are looking at a relatively small population—White or Black householders who
report an adopted child who is Black alone or Black multiracial—the 5-year file is the best
available data.2 The internal file provides a larger sample than the Public Use Microdata Sample
(PUMS) data.
The ACS contains a wealth of data describing characteristics of the parents, their
children, and their households. Since place of birth is collected, it is possible to get an indirect
measure of internationally adopted children. ACS also has measures of disability for those aged
5 and over, including hearing, vision, cognitive, ambulatory or self-care disability.
2 For information on when to use 1-year, 3-year, or 5-year ACS estimates, please visit: http://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/guidance/estimates.html.
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We compare three groups of parents. We focus on White (group 1) and Black alone
householders (group 2) who have an adopted child under 18 in their household who is identified
as Black alone or Black in combination with another race or races. In the descriptive tables, we
also show White parents who have a spouse who is other than White (group 3). Since the ACS
sample is large enough for us to look at this group separately, we compare them on demographic
characteristics in order to see whether they are a distinct group. Because respondents are simply
reporting a living arrangement, we do not have information about whether the adoption occurred
through the public foster care system, was privately arranged, or whether the parent was related
to the child before they were adopted (e.g., grandchild or stepchild). This limits our interpretation
because the 'adopted' category also includes some children who started out as stepchildren, or are
the biological child of the householder's unmarried partner, and he or she reports the child as
their adopted son or daughter.
We show descriptive profiles of these parents (families). In addition to these descriptive
analyses, we also run logistic regression models predicting whether adoptive parents of Black
children are White or Black. While those of other races adopt Black children, we exclude these
groups since we expect they will be too small to be meaningful in the context of controlling for
multiple characteristics of the parent/family in this analysis.3 The models are not causal, but
allow us to see which characteristics are more common for Black adoptive parents compared
with White.
Key Independent Variables
3 Although as stated earlier, we are using ‘White’ to refer to White non-Hispanic, keep in mind that ‘Black’ includes Black Hispanics.
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To examine demographic differences between White and Black adoptive parents, we
focus on four key variables regarding the adopted child: sex, disability, multiracial identification,
and immigration status.
Sex
We know from prior research that adoptive parents often prefer girls (Chandra et al.,
1999). It is unclear whether this preference extends to Black adoptive parents. To evaluate
whether there are differences in child’s sex across these groups, we create a sex ratio that
measures the proportion of adopted girls to boys. We hypothesize that adoptive parents,
regardless of race, will be more likely than their counterparts with biological children to adopt
girls. But, given prevalence of gendered stereotypes associating Black male youth with
delinquent behavior (Rios, 2011), we also hypothesize that White parents who adopt transracially
will be the most likely to adopt girls. While we show the sex ratio in the descriptive table, we do
not add it to the models, since it is a group level characteristic rather than an individual one.
Disability
In the past, it used to be that Black children available for adoption were often labeled as
‘harder to place’ or ‘special needs’ (Herman, 2008). Despite this uniform label, social scientists
know very little about the disability status of Black adopted children (Bramlett, 2010; also see
Kreider and Cohen, 2009 for a population analysis of disability among international adoptees
from Africa). We hypothesize that White parents, who cross the color line when adopting, are
less likely to adopt a child with a disability than Black parents adopting Black children. In the
model, we operationalize this measure by indicating parents who have adopted at least one Black
child with at least one disability. For those who do not have children under age 5, and thus do not
have data for the disability questions, we include a dummy variable indicating this.
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Multiracial Identification
Prior research on the ‘market’ value of adoptable children indicates biracial Black/White
children are in greater demand than monoracial Black children, at least among White adoptive
parents (Blackstone et al., 2008; Krawiec, 2010; Quiroz, 2007). Thus, we expect to see a higher
proportion of multiracial Black children living with White adoptive parents than with Black
adoptive parents.
It is important to note that U.S. Census Bureau’s race data are based on self-reported
identities. Prior sociological research has shown Black parents are the least likely to name their
multiracial children as more than one race (Rockquemore and Brunsma, 2007; Tafoya et al.,
2004). It is possible that this trend is carried out among Black adoptive parents as well. In
contrast, it is possible that White adoptive parents with Black children may want to emphasize
their children’s multiracial heritage and may be more likely to identify their son or daughter as
more than one race. Thus, we may over-estimate the differences in the prevalence of Black
multiracial children in Black versus White adoptive families. Since we are comparing parents,
and not children, the measure we use is whether the parent has at least one adopted Black child
who is identified as multiracial.
Immigration Status
Qualitative research suggests that a small, but growing, number of Black parents are
taking advantage of the increase of international adoptions from Africa (Raleigh, 2016).
However, at the population level, we know that parents who use international adoption are
disproportionately White (Ishizawa et al., 2006). Yet earlier studies may not have captured the
growing number of African adoptions (Davis, 2011). The combined 2010-2014 ACS data are
well situated to capture the increase in transnational adoptions from Africa and the Caribbean
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that occurred at the turn of the millennium (U.S. Department of State, 2015A; U.S. Department
of State, 2015B). We hypothesize that a higher proportion of White parents of Black children
will have internationally adopted children. We code immigration status to indicate parents who
have at least one Black adopted child who is foreign born.
Adopted Parent Variables
To help us better understand the profiles of parents with Black adopted children, we include a
series of control variables including current living arrangements, marital history, educational
attainment, labor force participation, home ownership, and geographic region of residence. The
models are not causal, but allow us to compare White and Black adoptive parents of Black
children in a multivariate context.
Results
Table 1 provides estimates for descriptive characteristics of adoptive parents of Black
children, for the three groups of parents. White parents are more likely to have a spouse present
—73 percent, compared with 44 percent of Black parents. All of the White intermarried parents
are married, by definition. More than twice the proportion of Black parents are mothers with no
spouse or partner present (44 percent), compared with White parents (18 percent). Black parents
(28 percent) are more likely than White parents (24 percent) to have been married more than
once.4
Since adoptive parents tend to be quite educated, we show ‘graduate or professional
school degree’ as a category separate from ‘bachelor’s degree’ in Table 1. However, for a more
4 The percentage of White intermarried parents who have been married more than once (27 percent), does not differ statistically from the estimates for either of the other two groups.
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basic comparison, we add the two categories together, and find that White parents have more
education than Black parents, with 53 percent having at least a bachelor’s degree, compared with
25 percent for Black parents. The difference between White intermarried parents and White is
smaller than that between Black and White parents. Forty-seven percent of White intermarried
parents have at least a bachelor’s degree. The proportion of Black parents with at least a
bachelor’s degree (25 percent) is higher than the percent for all Black alone adults aged 25 and
over (22 percent).5 The proportion of White adoptive parents with at least a bachelor’s degree
(53 percent) is higher than for all White adults aged 25 and over (36 percent), and greater than
the difference seen for Blacks.6
The contrasts in labor force participation among the three groups show a similar pattern
to educational attainment. The difference between White and White intermarried parents is not
statistically significant, although both groups differ from Black parents. The percentage of Black
parents who are unemployed is more than twice that of White or White intermarried parents.
While about 80 percent of White and White intermarried parents were employed (79 and 77
percent, respectively), just 68 percent of Black parents were employed. These differences in
labor force participation make sense given the poverty levels for the groups. While 9 percent of
White parents’ households and 6 percent of White intermarried households are below the poverty
level, this was the case for more than one quarter (28 percent) of Black adoptive parents’
households. This economic gap is also found in homeownership, with 50 percent of Black
parents renting their homes, while just 17 percent of White parents and 23 percent of White
intermarried parents rented their home.
5 Estimates for all adults, rather than the adoptive parents, are from the 2014 Current Population Survey. See Table 1-04: http://www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/education/data/cps/2014/Table%201-04.xlsx6 Estimates for all adults, rather than the adoptive parents, are from the 2014 Current Population Survey. See Table 1-03: http://www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/education/data/cps/2014/Table%201-03.xlsx
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Unsurprisingly, Black parents had the highest percentage living in the South, at 54
percent, compared with 30 percent for White parents and 36 percent for White intermarried
parents. This reflects the fact that the proportion of the overall population who are Black is
higher in the South than in the country as a whole.7 Comparing the three groups of parents,
White intermarried parents had the highest percentage living in the West (30 percent, compared
with 22 percent for White, and 9 percent for Black parents), which reinforces findings in earlier
work about intermarriage being more prevalent there (Wang, 2012, pg. 45). The largest
proportion of White parents, one-third, live in the Midwest.
In terms of the characteristics of their Black adopted children, Black parents were the
group most likely to have a child aged 12-17 as their youngest—42 percent compared with
around 30 percent for the other two groups of parents. The ratio of adopted girls to boys varied
little across the three groups, with a ratio of 0.9 for White parents, and 1.1 for Black parents, and
1.0 for White intermarried parents. White and White intermarried parents were more likely to
have at least one Black adopted child identified as multiracial—43 percent for White parents,
and 48 percent for White intermarried parents, while this was the case for only 6 percent of
Black parents. Because an adopted son/daughter is reported by the respondent and includes those
who are stepchildren, this may help, in part, to explain the higher proportion of multiracial
children living with White intermarried parents. However, the percentage for White intermarried
parents is higher than that for White parents, so perhaps this may reflect a tendency for White
parents to identify their Black children as multiracial far more often than a Black parent would
do so.
7 In 2010, 19.2 percent of the population in the South were Black, compared with 12.6 percent in the United States as a whole. See Table GCT-P3 in American FactFinder http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=DEC_10_SF1_GCTP3.US02PR&prodType=table.
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White parents have the highest percentage with at least one foreign-born child (14
percent), followed by White intermarried parents (7 percent) and Black parents (3 percent). For
parents with at least one Black adopted child aged 5 and over, 15 percent of White intermarried
parents have at least one child with a disability. This is not statistically different from White
parents (14 percent), while Black parents have a lower percentage (11 percent).
The multivariate model (see Table 2) allows us to compare groups of adoptive parents
while simultaneously controlling for various characteristics. Since the group of White
intermarried parents is quite small, we combine them with the other White parents, and simply
compare Black parents with all of the White adoptive parents.8 This allows us to get a more
nuanced sense of which of the apparent differences between Black and White parents remain
after we control for demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. The logistic regression
model is ‘predicting’ which parents are Black, and essentially compares characteristics against
those of White parents. It is not a causal model.
As expected, the gaps seen in Table 1 for several characteristics also hold in the model.
Black parents are significantly more likely to be a mother without a spouse or partner, and less
likely to have a bachelor’s or professional degree than White parents. They are less likely to own
their home and more likely to live in the South. The difference in poverty is not significant,
likely because other characteristics such as education, home ownership and labor force
participation may outweigh it in the multivariate context.
Black parents are less likely than White adoptive parents to have a multiracial child or a
foreign-born child. The difference in the proportion with at least one child with a disability is not
significant.
8 A model run excluding the White intermarried parents provides essentially the same results.
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Discussion
This paper presents some of the first national benchmarks of Black children in adoptive
families. Although some of our results are not surprising – e.g., Black adoptive parents on
average hail from lower socioeconomic status households – other findings did not align with our
original hypotheses.9 For example, given that prior research has found that prospective adoptive
parents often have a preference for girls (Ward-Gailey, 2010), it is notable that there are not
significant differences in gender ratios between these groups of adoptive parents. While these
data do not show a higher proportion of girls for adoptive parents of Black children, the reader
should keep in mind that all kinds of adoption are included in these data. The respondent may
report their spouse or partner’s biological child as their adopted child regardless of whether they
have legally adopted them. Adoptions finalized through the public foster care system are
included along with private and international adoptions.
When considering the disability data, it is perhaps a bit surprising that the apparent
difference between White and Black parents with at least one child with a disability is not
significant in the multivariate model. However, it is important to remember that these are self-
reported data, which may underestimate the disability rates among Black children. Results from
the 2005 National Survey of Children with Special Health Care indicate that Black children have
a higher incidence of parental reports of developmental delays but they are less likely than White
youngsters to receive Early Intervention services (McManus, et al., 2014). Thus, it may be that
White parents are more likely to identify their children as disabled because the diagnoses opens
up options for therapeutic treatment. As Colin Ong-Dean argues, as parents “become aware of
9 In this paper, we use the term ‘socioeconomic status’ to refer to the following measures that we show: educational attainment, labor force participation, household income, poverty level, and tenure.
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accommodations available to a child with a particular diagnosis, privileged parents may be
motivated to use their resources to advocate for such a diagnosis” (2009, p. 65).
Although we expected Black parents to be less likely to have at least one Black adopted
child who is identified as multiracial, the observed differences between White and Black
adoptive parents, with White parents having a multiracial child approximately 7 times as often as
Black parents were a bit surprising. Part of this gulf may be the legacy of hypodescent
characterizing Black Americans with ‘one drop’ of Black ancestry as Black. This approach to
racial identification is so dominant that research indicates between 75 to 90 percent of African
Americans could identify themselves as more than one race, but only a fraction choose to do so
(Lee and Bean, 2010). As Lee and Bean conclude from their interviews with multiracial Black
Americans, “Blacks are less likely to identify multiracially and more likely to identify, and be
identified as Black” (ibid, p. 134). Thus, it may be that Black adoptive parents see themselves as
a monoracial family, even if their children could “technically” be considered of multiracial
descent.
It is interesting that the White intermarried parents are the most likely to report having a
multiracial child. It may be that intermarried adoptive parents have a desire for their adoptive
family to adhere to the ‘as if begotten model,’ of adoption, such that the adopted child can
racially pass as the parents’ would-be biological child (Modell, 1994). So for these families,
there may be more of an incentive on the part of the interracially married adoptive parents to
adopt a child who would theoretically resemble a biological child. Another alternative
explanation is there may be something about being part of an interracial couple that affects how
White parents would report race for their children. For example, research suggests Whites in
interracial partnerships are more likely to take on multiracial identities since, as Dalmage argues,
20
“Once they join an interracial family … the privileges most Whites take for granted become
glaringly visible” (2000, p. 18). Again, due to the limitations of self-reported data, it is
impossible to untangle whether intermarried adoptive parents are indeed the most likely to seek
out a multiracial child to adopt, or if they are just more predisposed to identifying their child as
mixed race.
The multivariate model also confirms our hypothesis that Black parents would be less
likely than White parents to have a foreign-born adopted child. This finding reaffirms previous
research indicating that international adoption is largely supported by White parents and that it is
less accessible to parents of color (Ishizawa, et al., 2006). Indeed, results from the National
Survey of Adoptive Parents show that 92 percent of international adoptive parents are White
(Vandivere, et al., 2009). In contrast, Black parents are more likely to adopt from foster care
(ibid). One reason for this difference may be that adopting internationally is often more costly. In
fact, a recent report compiled by the U.S. Department of State found that the median cost of an
international adoption was over $31,000 (2015B). Given the lower socioeconomic status shown
in the descriptive estimates in Table 1, it is perhaps not surprising that Black parents are less
likely to have a foreign-born child.
Conclusion
Using ACS 5-year data, this paper has taken a closer look at the demographic profile of
Black adoptive parents. This group of adoptive parents is often overlooked as pundits and policy
makers often prefer to focus on the placement of Black children in White homes. There have
been a few small qualitative studies examining Black adoptive families but before the American
Community Survey, few datasets were large enough to examine this group at the national level.
21
Given the volume of the debate on transracial adoption, it may be surprising for readers
to know that there are more Black children adopted by Black parents than White ones. Although
the demographic finding is relatively straight forward, there are important implications because
this statistic will hopefully remind child welfare workers and adoption researchers to recognize
and focus on a sizeable group of adoptive families. Because others cannot easily identify
monoracial Black adoptive families, these families often go unnoticed. Of course, White
monoracial adoptive families are not obvious as well, but since White adoptive parents are
disproportionately represented in the population, they dominate the image of adoptive parents.
Whereas prior research has found that White adoptive parents are more privileged than
White parents raising biological children (Hamilton, et al., 2007), our findings indicate that
Black adoptive parents do not share the same privileged socioeconomic status. In line with
national trends on racial disparities, on average, Black adoptive parents have less access to
human and economic capital. They are less likely to be highly educated, own their homes, or be
in the labor force. They are also more likely to be raising children as single mothers and more
than a quarter (28 percent) of Black adoptive parents live below the poverty line.
These results suggest that on average, Black adoptive parents may not traverse the same
pathway to adoption as many White adoptive parents. Given Black families’ lower average
socioeconomic status, it is likely that fewer of these parents utilized private adoption, which is
much more expensive than public foster care adoption (Vandivere, et al., 2009). From our
results, it is clear that only a miniscule number of Black adoptive parents pursue transnational
private adoption. Although our findings allow us to rule out transnational adoption as a common
pathway to adoptive parenthood for Black parents, the data do not allow us to untangle other
forms of adoptive kinship.
22
These findings raise some important implications for child well-being. Considering that
many child welfare advocates agree that there is benefit to Black children being adopted by
Black parents, it is our hope that these population-based results may help identify potential
demographic profiles from which to recruit Black families. Moreover, our results indicate that
Black adoptive parents could likely benefit from increased social and economic support since
many of these families may be struggling compared to White transracial adoptive parents.
Thus, our conclusions raise more questions than are answered. Whereas the modal family
structure for White transracial adoptive parents is a married household, our findings indicate that
the story is not as straightforward for Black adoptive parents. Forty-four percent of Black
adoptive parents are married, but another 47 percent is comprised of single mothers. Considering
that a large proportion of black adoptive parents report being married more than once, it is
unclear which of these adoptive families are kinship and/or second parent adoptions and which
ones represent the more conventional adoption of a previously unrelated child. These questions
go beyond the scope of the ACS data and mark an important direction for future research.
23
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Table 1. Characteristics of Adoptive Parents of Black Children1
For information on confidentiality protection, sampling error, nonsampling error, and definitions, see http://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/tech_docs/accuracy/MultiyearACSAccuracyofData2014.pdf
White non-Hispanic parent Black alone parentWhite non-Hispanic intermarried parent
Numbe
rPercen
t
Margin of
error2Numbe
rPercen
t
Margin of
error2Numbe
r Percent
Margin of
error2
Total adoptive parents 69,619 100.0 X115,85
1 100.0 X 7,379 100.0 X
Living arrangement of the parent Married couple households 50,857 73.1 0.92 51,276 44.3 1.03 7,379 100.0 X Male--no spouse present 3,925 5.6 0.53 10,338 8.9 0.61 X X X With an unmarried partner 1,383 2.0 0.32 2,896 2.5 0.34 X X X No unmarried partner present 2,542 3.7 0.44 7,442 6.4 0.52 X X X Female--no spouse present 14,837 21.3 0.93 54,237 46.8 1.03 X X X With an unmarried partner 2,476 3.6 0.53 3,843 3.3 0.37 X X X No unmarried partner present 12,361 17.8 0.82 50,394 43.5 0.99 X X X
Parent has been married more than once3 14,886 23.9 1.07 22,799 27.5 1.09 2,022 27.4 3.46
Educational attainment of the parentLess than high school 2,155 3.1 0.44 12,341 10.7 0.62 244 3.3 1.07High school graduate 10,174 14.6 0.82 29,018 25.0 0.86 977 13.2 2.29Some college 20,556 29.5 1.17 46,046 39.7 0.98 2,665 36.1 3.73Bachelor's degree 19,460 28.0 1.26 16,161 13.9 0.77 1,833 24.8 3.18Graduate or professional school degree 17,274 24.8 1.12 12,285 10.6 0.60 1,660 22.5 3.13
Labor force participation of the parent4 69,619 100.0 X115,79
7 100.0 X 7,379 100.0 XIn labor force 58,120 83.5 0.90 89,821 77.6 0.87 5,967 80.9 3.15
Employed 55,277 79.4 1.01 78,571 67.9 1.03 5,680 77.0 3.35Unemployed 2,843 4.1 0.49 11,250 9.7 0.60 287 3.9 1.64
Not in labor force 11,499 16.5 0.90 25,976 22.4 0.87 1,412 19.1 3.15
Household income5
$0 or less 196 0.3 0.12 2,220 1.9 0.29 1 0.0 0.02$1-$24,999 5,478 7.9 0.73 30,252 26.1 0.97 297 4.0 1.48$25,000-$49,999 10,731 15.4 0.87 30,032 25.9 1.03 1,007 13.6 2.44$50,000-$99,999 24,677 35.4 1.43 31,888 27.5 1.00 2,345 31.8 4.04$100,000-$199,999 22,150 31.8 1.11 17,937 15.5 0.83 2,980 40.4 3.99$200,000 or more 6,387 9.2 0.66 3,522 3.0 0.31 749 10.2 2.32
Below the poverty level 6,333 9.1 0.76 32,421 28.0 0.97 459 6.2 1.86
Tenure Owns with a mortgage 50,124 72.0 1.02 49,832 43.0 1.20 5,222 70.8 4.31Owns free and clear 7,407 10.6 0.77 8,723 7.5 0.51 438 5.9 1.76
Rents home6 12,088 17.4 0.98 57,296 49.5 1.26 1,719 23.3 3.99
RegionNortheast 11,368 16.3 0.83 18,754 16.2 0.72 977 13.2 2.27Midwest 22,757 32.7 1.07 24,532 21.2 0.68 1,579 21.4 3.17South 20,511 29.5 1.02 62,145 53.6 1.08 2,644 35.8 3.63West 14,983 21.5 0.93 10,420 9.0 0.65 2,179 29.5 4.38
Characteristics of Householder's Adopted Children7
Age of youngest child0-5 years 23,100 33.2 1.18 27,746 23.9 1.02 2,411 32.7 3.276-11 years 25,592 36.8 1.23 39,436 34.0 1.00 2,676 36.3 3.4412-17 years 20,927 30.1 1.06 48,669 42.0 0.92 2,292 31.1 3.89
Ratio of adopted girls to adopted boys for the group 0.9 X 0.2 1.1 X 0.2 1.0 X 0.7
29
At least one child identified as multiracial 29,925 43.0 1.15 6,558 5.7 0.47 3,553 48.2 3.96
At least one foreign born child 9,520 13.7 0.75 3,951 3.4 0.34 514 7.0 1.77
At least one child age 5 and over 54,357 100.0 X 99,369 100.0 X 5,787 100.0 X
At least one child with a disability8 7,426 13.7 0.79 11,129 11.2 0.78 846 14.6 3.27
Unweighted total 6,647 X X 7,825 X X 627 X X(X) - not applicable.1 All relationships are collected with reference to the householder, so adoptive parents shown in this table are the householder--someone who owns or rents the home, and has at least one Black alone or in combination adopted child under 18 present in the household.2 This figure, added to, or subtracted from the percent, provides the 90 percent confidence interval. 3 Percentage is shown out of all those who have ever been married.4 The universe for this question is the population aged 16 and over.5 Estimates shown for adjusted household income.6 Rents or occupies without payment. 7 Only the Black alone or in combination adopted children under 18 are included when constructing these estimates.8 Only shown for parents with at least one child aged 5 and over, since some of the disability questions only apply to those aged 5 and over.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2010-2014.
30
Table 2. Comparison of Black Adoptive Parents with White Adoptive Parents1
For information on confidentiality protection, sampling error, nonsampling error, and definitions, see http://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/tech_docs/accuracy/MultiyearACSAccuracyofData2014.pdf
Model 1Black parent vs. White parent
Estimat
eStandard error
Odds Ratio
Living ArrangementMarried couple (reference)Female, no spouse or partner 0.6637 0.2746 1.94 *Male, no spouse or partner 0.5368 0.5440 1.71
Marital HistoryNever married (reference)Married once -0.3960 0.3368 0.67Married twice or more -0.4167 0.4654 0.66
Educational AttainmentLess than high school 0.5130 0.4820 1.67High school graduate or some college (reference)Bachelors degree -0.7318 0.3244 0.48 *Graduate or professional degree -0.7893 0.2767 0.45 **
Labor Force ParticipationEmployed (reference)Unemployed 0.3467 0.5646 1.41Not in labor force 0.0177 0.3312 1.02
In poverty 0.3301 0.4013 1.39Tenure
Own -0.9723 0.3221 0.38 **Rent (reference)
RegionNortheast (reference)Midwest -0.3932 0.3211 0.67South 0.6836 0.2902 1.98 *West -0.8073 0.4440 0.45
Has at least one multiracial Black adopted child -2.6243 0.3354 0.07 ***
Has at least one foreign born Black adopted child -1.4821 0.3830 0.23 **
*
Has at least one Black adopted child with a disability -0.5187 0.3314 0.60
Has no Black adopted child 5 years old and over -0.6205 0.3221 0.54 Significance is noted as follows: *(<0.05), **(<0.01), ***(<0.001).
31
1 Adoptive parents include only White non-Hispanic, and Black alone householders. White non-Hispanic householders with spouses who are not White non-Hispanic are included with White householders. Black adopted children include those who reported Black alone or in combination with other race groups. Source: American Community Survey, 2010-2014.
32