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 National Adoption Center reports that fifty-two percent of adoptable children have attachment disorder symptoms. It was also found that the older the child when adopted, the higher the risk of social maladjustment (Benson et al., 1998). This is to say that a child who is adopted at one-week of age will have a better chance of “normal'; adjustment than a child who is adopted at the age of ten. This may be due in part to the probability that an infant will learn how to trust, where as a ten-year-old may have more difficulty with this task, depending on his history. Eric Erickson, a developmental theorist, discusses trust issues in his theory of development. The first of Erickson’s stages of development is Trust v. Mistrust. A child who experiences neglect or abuse can have this stage of development severely damaged. An adopted infant may have the opportunity to fully learn trust, where as an older child may have been shuffled from foster home to group home as an infant, thereby never learning trust. Even though Trust v. Mistrust is a major stage of development, “the greatest psychological risk for adopted children occurs during the middle childhood and adolescent years'; (McRoy et al., 1990). As children grow and change into adolescents, they begin to search for an identity by finding anchoring points with which to relate. Unfortunately, adopted children do not have a biological example to which to turn (Horner & Rosenberg, 1991), unless they had an open adoption in which they were able to form a relationship with their biological families as well as their adoptive ones. Also key to the development of trust is the ab...
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..., K., Kotsopoulos, S., Oke, L., Pentland, N., Sheahan, P., & Stavrakaki, C. (1988). Psychiatric Disorders in Adopted Children: A Controlled Study. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 58(4), 608-611.
Hajal, F., & Rosenberg, E. (1991). The Family Life Cycle in Adoptive Families. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 61(1), 78-85.
Horner, T., & Rosenberg, E. (1991). Birthparent Romances and Identity Formation in Adopted Children. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 61(1), 70-77.
Kelly, M., Martin, B., Rigby, A., & Towner-Thyrum, E. (1998). Adjustment and Identity Formation in Adopted and Nonadopted Young Adults: Contributions of a Family Enviornment. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 68(3), 497-500.
McRoy, R., Grotevant, H., Furuta, A., & Lopez, S. (1990). Adoption Revelation and Communication Issues: Implications for Practice. Families in Society, 71, 550-557.
Wegar, K. (1995). Adoption and Mental Health: A Theoretical Critique of the Psychopathological Model. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 65(4), 540-548.
Many potential adopted parents have experienced heartbreak, anguish and other problems that can be associated with adoption. There is an imbalance in the Nations foster care system and the system needs to be strengthening and the quality of services improved.
Plato’s Republic focuses on one particular question: is it better to be just or unjust? Thrasymachus introduces this question in book I by suggesting that justice is established as an advantage to the stronger, who may act unjustly, so that the weak will “act justly” by serving in their interests. Therefore, he claims that justice is “stronger, freer, and more masterly than justice” (Plato, Republic 344c). Plato begins to argue that injustice is never more profitable to a person than justice and Thrasymachus withdraws from the argument, granting Plato’s response. Glaucon, however, is not satisfied and proposes a challenge to Plato to prove that justice is intrinsically valuable and that living a just life is always superior. This paper will explain Glaucon’s challenge to Plato regarding the value of justice, followed by Plato’s response in which he argues that his theory of justice, explained by three parts of the soul, proves the intrinsic value of justice and that a just life is preeminent. Finally, it will be shown that Plato’s response succeeds in answering Glaucon’s challenge.
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...
In Blake’s poem “The Lamb” from Songs of Innocence, Blake proves that in order to keep innocence alive, a child must not question. It is in a child’s nature to trust all that has been told. Therefore the lamb represents childhood as well as innocence. The lamb is personified as being a gentle creature without sin, and the poem itself is characterized by pleasant light imagery. This imagery is an indicator that innocence is a desired state of being. In the first stanza of the poem, the narrator asks questions regarding
Foster Care and Adoption are the most multi-faceted areas of child welfare. Foster care consists of placing children outside of the custody of their parents or legal guardians. This out-of-home placement can be temporary or long-term. Adoption on the other hand, consists of the legal and permanent process that establishes a parent/child relationship between individuals not related biologically (Downs, Moore, & McFadden, 2009). These two areas of child welfare are constantly evolving and the decisions made on a child’s behalf can affect many areas of their biological, spiritual, social, and emotional wellbeing.
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
This article has several areas that require further investigation to explain the relation between adoption and suicide. At this point in time suicide is the third leading cause of death in adolescents ages 10 to 24 (Fox, 2013) and these studies can possibly lead to an explanation and a prevention program to allow parents and psychologists to see risk factors before it is too late to act. While it is stated that this study was not diverse enough to generalize the nation several worrisome questions arise. Why is it that adopted children are more likely to be at risk for suicidal behavior and attempts? Are there other contributing factors to the risk, are children who were adopted abroad versus domestically at a higher risk? However, one question can be easily answered this is not the stereotypical “teenage angs...
Teens that select adoption for their child enable them to obtain a suitable, stable family lifestyle. Teenagers are not able to parcel out entire care for their child. They lack education required to come into possession of a job that can provide enough income to have all the necessities it takes to raise a child and support a family. Young adults also have an absence family stability and marriage. “Only 20 percent of fathers marry the teen mother of their child and 80 percent of these fathers pay less than 800 dollars per year for child support” (Abma). Children need a better foundation in their family. This instability tends to cause the child to perform poorly in school and may have to repeat a grade. However, children placed in adoptive care foresee a much brighter future. “Children who are adopted as infants often have higher levels of health, self-esteem, and family support” (National Campaign). Health, self-esteem, and education are all vital for a young child. Teen parenting deprives these kids of the abili...
Adoption has been proven to be a motivator for children countless times. Adoption has miniscule, if any, health impacts on children. A study from Bethany Christian Services shows that health is not an issue. “Most children who are adopted lead healthy, normal lives” (Bethany Christian Services 1). The importance in this statement is the fact that adoption does not affect the health of the adopted child, at least majority of the time. Adoptees make up two percent of the world’s population. Out of that two percent, “5 percent of children are receiving outpatient mental health services, 10 to 15 percent of children are in residential treatment, and 6 to 9 percent of children who have learning disorders in the United States” (Bethany Christian Services 1). Furthermore, adoption shows signs of low self-esteem in the most rarity of cases. The Minnesota/Texas Adoption Research Project conducted studies to display the correlation in openness of adoption. “In the first wave of research when the children were between the ages of 4 and 12 with two thirds between ages 5.5 and 8.5 years the researchers have found there was no relationship found between adoption openness and self-esteem, either positively or negatively. Taking this new found intelligence in consideration, it can be concluded that overall, adoption hinders the health of children only in minority cases, and the...
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...
In The Republic, Plato strives to display through the character and conversations of Socrates that justice is better than just the proper good for which men must strive for, regardless of whether they could receive equal benefit from choosing otherwise. His method is to use the dialogue from Socrates, questions which led the reader from one point to another, supposedly with convincing logic by obtaining agreement to each point before proceeding to the next, and so constructing an intriguing argument.
In the poem, "The Lamb," from Songs of Innocence, William Blake asks the little lamb, "Little Lamb, who made thee? Dost thou know who made thee?" (1351). It is here where the author purposely questions the reader and leaves the reader, wandering for an answer to that precise question. The author then continues by leading the reader to an indirect possible answer to his question by saying "Little Lamb I'll tell thee! / He is called by thy name, / For he calls himself a Lamb" and proceeds a line later with "He became a little child; / I a child & thou a lamb." It is apparent that he doesn't exactly give a direct answer. He mentions in an roundabout way that the lamb's creator calls himself a Lamb and that he became a little child. This vague background provides an idea who the creator actually is, but not enough to somehow match the creator with God from the biblical texts. And, since the information is vague, the reader really can't come to a narrowed conclusion because the answer itself depends on the reader's beliefs and experiences and so therefore leaves the true answer to the question still unanswered.
Plato’s Republic is a dialogue set in Athens, which at the time of documentation was the center of the democratic world. Despite the city’s knowledge and construction of political structures ahead of its time, the main question addressed in the Republic is that of justice. What is justice, and why should we want to be just? Many competing thoughts are outlined within the Republic, notably that of a Sophist named Thrasymachus, who stated that justice is “nothing other than what is advantageous for the stronger” (Plato, p. 15, 5c). Socrates, the main philosopher in this dialogue who claims that he “knows nothing” (Plato, p. 35, 354c) disagrees with Thrasymachus and spends the entire book trying to disprove the argument that the unjust person
“A survey conducted by the Evans D. Donaldson Institute found that six out of ten Americans” have had a ‘personal experience’ with adoption (Dudley 1). With such a high percentage, it is important for one to understand the issues entwined with open and closed adoptions. In the United States today, closed adoptions are associated with secrecy and shame, leading to long-term emotional problems for children and parents. The basic idea of open adoptions allows the child to know his or her birth parents' identities. In addition, information is not permanently concealed in a government file. Open adoptions allow “the birth parent or parents to meet the prospective adoptive parents, participate in the adoption process, and maintain contact with the child and adoptive family after the child is born and adopted.” Because of laws written long ago and the practice of closed adoptions, the right to obtain one’s original birth certificate is restricted in all states but six. In the past, the reasoning in support of the laws was the adoptees would be secure in their new families and wouldn’t need to know where their roots existed. Over time, the practice of closed adoptions has presented major complications, questioning of civil rights, long-term emotional problems, and loss of identity. Within the issue of open and closed adoption, every state should pass legislation allowing adoptees to seek out their biological parents when they turn eighteen.
“The hierarchy between art, architecture, design, and planning remains a paradox within the culture of sustainability, where the principal criterion of value to bring into being sustainable projects and environments,” states design Professor Victor Magolin from Illinois states in the essay Reflections on Art and Sustainability. Overall, when trying to define collaborations, movements, art objects, or what have you, it all comes down to the intent of the project or creator’s final goal.