Contents
Introduction 2
Background 3
Question 3
Evidence 1 3
Evidence 2 3
Evidence 3 3
Background 3
Question 3
Evidence 1 3
Evidence 2 3
Evidence 3 4
Background 4
Question 4
Evidence 1 4
Evidence 2 4
Evidence 3 4
Essay
Introduction
This essay will address the issue of Alternative families and the affect it has on the child’s development. The issue of Alternative families is broken down into three sub-categories, which include adoption, same-sex parents and split families. The main development areas that this essay will be analysing are the Emotional and Social Development of a child. However, does an alternative family structure affect the social and emotional development of a child?
First, we need to define what alternative families are to continue in completing the essay. An alternative family differs from the traditional representation of a family. Examples of alternative families are; foster care and adoption, single parents, central role of grandparents, split families and same-sex parents.
Research conducted in the United States of America, show stable marriages has declined over the past half-century, which leaves a high percentage of American children to face the experience of transitioning into stepfamilies and or single parent families. In addition, it has also demonstrated those children who have to make the transition into stepfamilies/other family structures may fare worse developmentally compared to a child who has had an upbringing in a traditional family. However, transition into alternative families has no significant affect on African Children. (Fomby & Cherlin, 2007)
According to this research, repeated movements of parents and their partners and spouses in and out of the child’s household could produce...
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..., questioning their adoption and identity during adolescence. However, the meta-analysis revealed that international adoptees presented fewer overall behaviour problems in adolescence compared to early and middle childhood.
The reason for international adoptees having behavioural problems during the preoperational and concrete operational stage is for the reason that there can perceive that they are different as there looks are different, E.G skin colour. This creates greater awareness of their adoptive status at an early stage.
The prediction/hypothesis that stated adoptees struggled with low self-esteem particularly during adolescence was not supported, as there was no difference in self-esteem between adopted adolescents and non-adopted adolescents. In addition, there was no difference in self-esteem between domestic, international and trans-racial adoptees.
The family I chose to interview is a blended non-traditional family. There is a mother and her 6 kids. The kids come from two different guys that the gal was married to and a boyfriend that she has lived with in the past. The boyfriend still spends some nights with her.
First, social-work and mental-health experts have reached a consensus during the last decade that greater openness offers an array of benefits for adoptees—from ongoing information about family medical issues to fulfillment of their innate desire to know about their genetic histories—even if the expanded relationships prove difficult or uncomfortable for some of the participants (Verbrugge). An open adoption is when the natural mother and the adoptive family know the identity of each other and could obtain background or medical history from the biological parent. In an open adoption the parental rights of biological parents are terminated, as it is in a closed adoption, but an open adoptio...
There has been an enormous amount of research conducted about adoptees and their problems with identity formation. Many of the researchers agree on some of the causes of identity formation problems in adolescent adoptees, while other researchers conclude that there is no significant difference in identity formation in adoptees and birth children. This paper will discuss some of the research which has been conducted and will attempt to answer the following questions: Do adoptees have identity formation difficulties during adolescence? If so, what are some of the causes of these vicissitudes? Is there a significant difference between identity formation of adoptees and nonadoptees?
The analysis explored in this document is implementing a program UNIT for parents adopting a different race from their own. Adopting outside of a race is a life altering decision because of regulating mechanisms that condition people to accept or reject individuals based on their appearances. There are not any programs that guide transracial adoptions after they occur. Society as a whole has its own prejudices. The adoptive parents should know about their children’s cultural backgrounds. Society is not very conscience of prejudging it is just something that is a part of life. This is unfortunately one more issue dealt with by adopted children.
According to American academy and adolescent psychiatry, about 120,000 children are adopted in the United States alone. That is a lot of children that need to find a new home to stay in. Not only do adoptions affect the child after they are adopted, no matter the age; but adoption also affects the parents giving their child up for adoption. There are many types of adoptions. Along with that, there are many reasons for giving the child up for adoption. There are three main perspectives that I will be talking about. One function would be the structural functionalism. How society cooperates. The second would be the conflict perspective. The third would be symbolic interactionism approach. There are many different aspects of adoption, making it
Over the past decades, the patterns of family structure have changed dramatically in the United States. The typical nuclear family, two married parents with children living together in one household, is no longer the structure of the majority of the families today. The percentage of single-parent families, step-families and adopted families has increased significantly over the years. The nuclear family is a thing of the past. Family situations have tremendous influence upon a child’s academic achievement, behavior and social growth.
Many people grow up in loving families and cannot imagine not having their parents and siblings around, but each year, 18,000 or more American born babies are put up for adoption (Newlin Carney). That means at least 18,000 children face the harsh truth of maybe not having a family to grow up in. Childhood is a very important part of one’s life and helps shape who one is. These children that are eligible to be adopted just need loving parents, good homes, and stability. And who is to say the high price of adopting is not ho...
... factors that cause the preference of adoption of Asian and AmeriAsian babies. Many of these Americans are influenced to adopt from China, Vietnam, and South Korea because of the perception that Asian babies are ‘beautiful’, that “There are no ugly Asian children” (Dorow 273). One of the biggest deciding factors in preferring to adopt an Asian rather than another non-white or white is the ‘Model Minority’ factor that “Asian communities have excelled in our society” (Dorow 274). They are more adaptable to the American culture as their stereotypes are seen ‘different’. That “’Real race and racism were sometimes reserved for blacks” (Dorow 280) which made them more favorable. Another factor that was favorable was the accessibility to many single, married, gay, lesbian applicants, the availability of healthy infants, and the severed cultural and paternal attachments.
Families are becoming more diverse and they come in all shapes and sizes. Some people consider families to be strictly biological, while others consider people they love to be their family. Although two-parent families, also known as a nuclear family are the majority, one-parent families are becoming more common in today’s society. A sole-parent is considered to be a parent without a partner or spouse who is the primary care giver of one or more children in a household (Ministry of Social Development, 2010). From the age of 14 onward I was raised by m...
For many years, children growing up in a single parent family have been viewed as different. Being raised by only one parent seems impossible to many yet over the decades it has become more prevalent. In today’s society many children have grown up to become emotionally stable and successful whether they had one or two parents to show them the rocky path that life bestows upon all human beings. The problem lies in the difference of children raised by single parents versus children raised by both a mother and a father. Does a child need both parents? Does a young boy need a father figure around? Does the government provide help for single parents? What role do step-parents and step-siblings play? With much speculation, this topic has become a very intriguing argument. What people must understand is that properly raising a child does not rely on the structure of a family but should be more focused on the process
“When a child looks in the mirror, you want her to know herself. It is hard to face the world when you don’t know where your face came from”(adoption quotes.2013.pp1). International adoption is the most widely form of adoption used in the United States. Although many people consider this form of adoption as a “chance to save the day and be a hero”, it also opens the door for many inappropriate activities. International adoption has a malicious effect on American society because it hinders U.S adoption, it creates mental issues for the child, and it promotes child trafficking.
In the adopting method, behavioral geneticists study children adopted shortly after birth. By comparing their abilities and personality traits to those o their adoptive family members with whom they live and those of their biological parents whom they may have met, researchers can disentangle the effect of heredity and environment (Plomin et al., 19...
It is more common for these adoptive families to be transracial. Therefore there are two different races within the family. Families of transracial adoptions have many unique qualities because they have two different cultures under one roof. The problem with transracial adoption is the cultural difference between the parents and the child. The family is not prepared to understand the child’s background or the child’s culture. Relatability is also something that the child needs in the household and this would something that this family would lack. Like we talked about in class the child would suffer because they do not have anyone in their family to relate to. A child’s self-esteem would most likely be lower than a child growing up in a same race family. The child does not see anyone in their family that looks like them so they feel as if they are not good enough. It is hard for a child to fully understand as to why they are different from their families and why they were not blessed to look like their family. This creates self-identity issues for the child because they do not know who they should identify with and cannot tell where they fit in. Promotion of acceptance amongst the family would be something that could help the child’s self-esteem and
There are many types of family that exists in today’s society, each important to the upbringing of any children of which may be apart of it.
Fifty years ago, the typical American family included a mother, father and their children. However today, “One in every four children in the United States are being raised by a single parent. Experts point to a variety of factors to explain the high US figure including a cultural shift toward greater acceptance of single parent rearing.”(Armario). As these numbers continue to rise due to modern day ideas and the increasing divorce rate, the children of single parents struggle. “Today 41% of all births were to unmarried women.”(Hymowitz). Single parent families have a detrimental effect on the psychological development of children because single parent families lack financial stability and quality parenting, in addition to lacking a stress free environment.