Parenting in Transracial Adoption: Real Questions and Real Answers

An essential resource for transracially adoptive parents and the professionals who serve them, this book offers practical strategies for helping a transracially adopted child through the challenges he or she may face.

Anchored in a qualitative study of parents who have adopted children identified as being of a different race, this book draws from real-life experiences to raise and respond to questions that arise before, during, and after transracial adoption. Its goal: to help adoptive parents (and child welfare professionals) understand the underlying racial challenges in a transracial adoption so they can help their children cope.

The book addresses questions from the obvious―for example, how to respond to comments from family and community members―to the practical―how a Caucasian mother can learn to help her African American daughter groom her hair. Topics include parental understanding of race while growing up, parental understanding of the challenges within the community, and communicating within the adoptive family. The book also shares advice from practitioners about preparing and supporting families in transracial adoption. A highlight of this book is a chapter written by three adult adoptees who grew up within transracial families.

Equipped with the information in this helpful volume, readers will be prepared to parent in ways that empower, rather than impede, their child's social, emotional, and identity development. This book will enable children welfare professionals to better help and support parents involved in these processes.

• Includes advice and questions for discussion and thought by parents considering transracial adoption; for parents already on the journey with older children, the authors examine racial identity development

• Offers concrete strategies for parents parenting a child from a different race

• Provides practical steps related to managing influences and opinions from within the extended family and the community

• Suggests ways parents can learn from members of their child's racial community―and how to manage challenges that arise in transracial adoption situations

• Shares the stories of three adults who were transracial adoptees as well as vignettes from (and interviews with) dozens of parents who were involved in transracial adoptions